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Pit CRUDE 
ABOUT MORMONISM 


JAMES H. SNOWDEN 


BY 
JAMES H. SNOWDEN 


THE BASAL BELIEFS OF CHRISTIANITY 

THE WORLD A SPIRITUAL SYSTEM 

CAN WE BELIEVE IN IMMORTALITY ? 

THE COMING OF THE LORD 

IS THE WORLD GROWING BETTER ? 

THE PERSONALITY OF GOD 

A WONDERFUL NIGHT: A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION 

A WONDERFUL MORNING: THE EASTER MESSAGE 
SCENES AND SAYINGS IN THE LIFE OF CHRIST 

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION 

A SUMMER ACROSS THE SEA 

THE TRUTH ABOUT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 

THE MEANING OF EDUCATION 

THE ATTRACTIONS OF THE MINISTRY 

THE CITY OF TWELVE GATES: A STUDY IN CATHOLICITY 
JESUS AS JUDGED BY HIS ENEMIES 

THE MAKING AND MEANING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
IMMORTALITY AND MODERN THOUGHT 

SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSONS, SIX ANNUAL VOLS. 


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TABERNACLE SQUARE AND TEMPLE 


ABOUT MORMONISM...._/ 


BY 


JAMES H. SNOWDEN 


NEW ei YORK 


GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT, 1926, 
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 


@D 


THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 
Sy ake 
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 


PREFACE 


Mormonism is closing the first century of its ex- 
istence, as Joseph Smith its founder claimed to have 
obtained the “gold plates’ of his Bible in September, 
1827, and his Book of Mormon was published and 
his church was organized in 1830. It has had a 
varied and dramatic career, running through the 
adventures of its early days, its hardships in the 
Middle West ending in the tragedy of Smith’s as- 
sassination at Nauvoo, IIl., in 1847, its flight through 
incredible sufferings to the Rocky Mountains, and its 
growth from six members of unpromising antece- 
dents and prospects to its present organization of 
half a million members and an efficient hierarchy. 

Mormonism and Christian Science are the two 
original religions America has contributed to the 
world and they are strikingly alike at many points. 
No other religion has been so hotly opposed and 
hated by its opponents as Mormonism and it must 
be admitted that it has not always received fair 
treatment and has often been maligned. It has been 
denounced as the greatest menace to our common 
Christianity and to our American government. 

What is the truth about it? Its approaching cen- 


tennial makes this an opportune time to ask this 
Vv 


vi PREFACE 


question anew and tell the truth on the subject. 
What are the facts about “Joe” Smith and his “gold 
plates” and his “revelations”? Who was respon- 
sible for his murder by a mob ? Was Brigham 
Young “a great American” or even “the greatest 
American” as many Mormons affirm, and what is 
the truth about his “empire”? Have the Mormons 
really abandoned the practice of polygamy and has 
the ‘‘menace” of Mormonism been abated? What 
will be the future of this religion and may it be 
modified and purified into a recognized branch of 
our common Christianity? These and many related 
questions are discussed in this book in the light of 
history as it is recorded in the large literature of the 
subject and of the latest developments of this faith. 

The effort of the author has been to examine all 
the relevant facts and judge them impartially and 
tell the truth about them. While he cannot suppose 
that he has wholly escaped the influence of his own 
principles and unintended predilections, yet he has 
honestly endeavored to see and say all things in the 
light of reality. No other judgment ought to be 
made or will stand. 

President Heber J. Grant, of the Mormon church, 
in answering a request from the author for a con- 
tribution to this volume stating the present position 
of his church, courteously declined on the ground 
that he would not care to write anything to appear 
in a book concerning whose contents he knew noth- 
ing, and then he added: “I note that you are going 


PREFACE vii 


to try to be fair in what you write regarding the 
truth about Mormonism. I certainly will be happy 
to congratulate you if you succeed in being fair, as, 
in case you are fair, it will be like an oasis in the 
desert, as about ninety-nine out of every hundred 
who write anything about Mormonism do so in a 
biased and unfair manner.” I can hardly hope that 
this volume will meet President Grant’s ideal of fair 
' treatment at every point, but I have sincerely tried 
to be fair according to my own light and conscience 
and have kept in view the aim: 


Nothing extenuate, 
Nor set down aught in malice. 


James H. SNOWDEN. 


Dae staid ae SN RR ei bi ae yi 
Se yctee Ua OR ND eae om. ‘anh, He 


iy ‘ 





THE LITERATURE OF MORMONISM 
AND LIST OF BOOKS CONSULTED 


The most complete body of literature on Mor- 
monism is the “Berrian” collection in the New York 
Public Library, which runs to about 500 titles and 
contains books, pamphlets, newspapers and other 
material that afford the student a large command 
of the subject. The next largest collection of Mor- 
mon literature is found in the National Library of 
Congress at Washington, and it contains about 250 
titles. The author is indebted to the librarians of 
both the New York Public and the National Library 
of Congress for special facilities and favors and for 
the loan of some rare and valuable material. In 
the following list of books consulted by the author 
in the writing of this volume the more important 
ones, besides the writings of the various members 
of the Smith family, are those by E. D. Howe, W. 
A. Linn, J. F. Gibbs, T. B. H. Stenhouse, E. W. 
Tullidge, C. A. Shook, I. W. Riley, F. P. Spalding, 
and Frank J. Cannon. Gibbs, Stenhouse and Can- 
non were expelled or withdrew from the Utah 
branch and Shook from the Reorganized branch of 
Mormonism. Linn’s Story of Mormonism is a de- 
tailed and thoroughly documented history up to 


1x 


x LITERATURE OF MORMONISM 


1901 by a non-Mormon but impartial scientific his- 
torian, but it is too large and elaborate a book for 
popular readers and much has happened and some 
new light, especially on the origin of the Book of 
Mormon, has been discovered since it appeared. 


Adams, John Quincy, The Birth of Mormonism. 
1916. 

Beadle, J. H. (with O. J. Hollister), Polygamy, or, 
The Mysteries and Crimes of Mormonism. 
1902. 

Bennett, John C., The History of the Saints, or an 
Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism. 1842. 

Bonsall, Miss Marian, The Tragedy of the Mormon 
Woman. 1908. 

Burton, Richard F., City of the Saints and Across 
the Rocky Mountains to California. 1881. 

Cannon, Frank J. (with H. J. O’Higgins), Under 
the Prophet in Utah. IgI1I. 

Cannon, Frank J. (with G. L. Knapp), Brigham 
Young and His Mormon Empire. 1913. 
Carvalho, S. N., Incidents of Travel in the Far 

West. 1857. 

Chamberlin, Ralph V., Life and Philosophy of 
W. H. Chamberlin. 1925. 

Combs, George R., Some Latter-Day Religions. 
1899. 

Dibble, R. F., “Brigham Young” in Strenuous 
Americans. 1923. 

Dougall, Lily, The Mormon Prophet. 1808. 


LITERATURE OF MORMONISM xi 


Erickson, Ephraim Edward, The Psychological and 
Ethical Aspects of Mormon Group Life. 1922. 

Evans, John H., One Hundred Years of Mormon- 
ism. 1908. 

Ferris, B. G., Utah Under the Mormons. 1854. 

Fohlin, E. V., Salt Lake Past and Present. 1908. 

Gibbs, J. F., Lights and Shadows of Mormonism. 
1909. 

Goodwin, S. H., Mormonism and Masonry, A Utah 
Point of View. 1925. 

Guernsey, Alice M., Under Our Flag. 10903. 

Gunnison, J. W., The Mormons, or Latter-Day 
Saints. 1856. 

Howe, E. D., Mormonism Unveiled. 1834. 

Hyde, John, Mormonism, Its Leaders and Designs. 
1857. 

Kelley, Wiliam H., Presidency and Priesthood. 
1895. 

Kennedy, James H., Early Days of Mormonism. 
1888. 

Kinney, Bruce, Mormonism, the Islam of America. 
IQI2. 

Death irtih T., The Mormons and Their Bible. 
IQOI. 

Lee, John Doyle, The Mormon Menace, Being the 
Confession of John Doyle Lee, Danite and Off- 
cial Assassin of the Mormon Church. 1905. 

Linn, William A., The Story of the Mormons. 1901. 

Mayhew, Henry, Mormons, or Latter-Day Saints. 
1851. 


xii LITERATURE OF MORMONISM 


McClintok, James H., Mormon Settlement in 
Arizona. 1921. 

Meyer, Eduard, Ursprung und Geschichte der Mor- 
monen mit Exkursen tiber Anfange des Islams 
und des Christentum. 1912. 

Patterson, Robert, Who Wrote the Book of Mor- 
mon? 1882. 

Pratt, Parley P., A Voice of Warning, an Introduc- 
tion to the Faith and Doctrine of the Church 
of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 1881. 

Rae, W. F., Westward by Rail. 1874. 

Riley, Isaac W., The Founder of Mormonism. 
1908. 

Roberts, Brigham H., Defense of the Faith of the 
Saints. 1907. The Gospel: an Exposition of 
First Principles. 1918. The Mormon Doc- 
trine of Deity. 1908. Outlines of Ecclesias- 
tical History. 1902. New Witnesses for 
God, 4 IOnrT. 

Shook, Charles A., The True Origin of the Book of 
Mormon, 1912; Cumorah Revisited, the True 
Origin of Mormon Polygamy. 

Shroeder, Albert F., Origin of the Book of Mormon. 
IQOI. 

Siebel, George, Mormon Problem. 1899. 

Smith, Joseph, The Book of Mormon, 1908; The 
Book of Doctrine and of Covenants of the 
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 
1880; The Pearl of Great Price, a Selection 
from the Revelations, Translations and Narra- 


LITERATURE OF MORMONISM xii 


tives of Joseph Smith, First Prophet, Seer and 
Revelator. 1913. 

Smith, Joseph (eldest son of the Prophet and Presi- 
dent of the Reorganized Church, with Apostle 
Heman C. Smith), History of the Church of 
Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 4 vols. 
1897-1900. 

Smith, Joseph F. (Apostle and Official Church His- 
torian), Essentials of Church History. 

Smith, Lucy (mother of the Prophet), Biographi- 
cal Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and 
His Progenitors for Many Generations. 1858 

Smith, Mrs. M. E. V., Fifteen Years Among the 
Mormons. 1858. 

Spalding, Franklin P., Joseph Smith, Jr., as a Trans- 
lator. 1912. 

Stansbury, Howard, Expedition to the Valley of 
the Great Salt Lake with an Authentic Account 
of the Mormon Settlement. 1855. 

Stenhouse, Thomas B., The Rocky Mountain Saints. 

Belts 7 3, 

Talmadge, James E., Articles of Faith, a Series of 
Lectures on the Church of Jesus Christ of Lat- 
ter-Day Saints. 1899. 

Traum, Samuel W., Mormonism Against Itself. 
IQIO. 

Tullidge, Edward W., History of Salt Lake City. 
1886. 

U. S. Senate, Great Debates in American History, 


IQI3. 


xiv LITERATURE OF MORMONISM 


U. S. Senate, Proceedings Against Reed Smoot. 
1900. 

Webb, Robert C., The Case Against Mormonism, a 
Candid Examination of an Interesting but 
Much Misunderstood Subject in History, Life 
and Thought. 1816. 

Williams, Samuel, Mormonism Exposed. 

Willing, Mrs. Jenme F., On American Soil, or Mor- 
monism the Mohammedanism of the West. 


1900. 
Wilson, Lycurgus A., Outlines of Mormon Philos- 
ophy. 1905. 


Wood, Ezra M., Schools for Spirits. 1903. 

Young, Ann Eliza, Life in Mormon Bondage. 1908. 

The Dictionary of Religion and Ethics. 

The Encyclopedia Britannica. 

Bulletin of the New York Public Library, March, 
1909, with Catalogue of the Berrian collection 
of books on Mormonism. 


CONTENTS 
CHAPTER 
I THE ROOTS OF MORMONISM 
1. The Religious Nature of Man . 
Human Credulity . 
Self-Deception 
Self-Interest . 


Local Social and Religious eon 
tions 


II JOSEPH SMITH: ANCESTRY, BOY- 
HOOD AND YOUTH . ‘ ‘ 


WA wD 


Ty PASICOSLLY A Wi Gk 

2. Birth and Hositvcd 

3. A Money-Digger and Beeston 
Expert . 

4. General Glee ter of ged Smith 
Family . Pe ama eh hee 


‘Ut THE GOLDEN BIBLE: ITS ORIGIN . 
1. The Visions ; 
2. Discovery of the etnies Plates : 
3. Translating the Plates 
ot 


. The Printing and the Editions af the 
Book Ht, 


The Witnesses to fe Plates : 

Joseph Smith as an Lai) 
Translator . 

7. Who Wrote the Boots of Motinod? 


xV 


nen 


79 


Xvi 


CHAPTER 


CONTENTS 


IV THE BOOK OF MORMON: CON- 
TENTS OF THE (BCR iia ae 


i 
2. 


Kf 
4. 


Names in the Book . 

General Contents and Sources of the 
Book 

Marks of Teendene in the Bose 

Origin of the Ideas of the Book . 


V THE FOUNDING AND ORGANIZA- 
TION OF THE MORMON CHURCH 


I. 
2. 


The Founding of the Church 
The Organization of the Church . 


VI THE DOCTRINES OF THE MORMON 
CHURCH ; 


1. The Mormon Doctrine of God . 


The Mormon Doctrine of Christ and 

the Holy Spirit . i 
The Mormon Doctrine of ea ; 
The Mormon Doctrine of Sin 


The Mormon Doctrine of Atonement 
and Blood Atonement . 


Church Organization . 

The Priesthood 

Ordinances 

Miracles ; 
The Bible and Raunce Resslainee 


. Liberty of Worship . 


Relation to Civil Government 


. Morality and Virtue . 


Polygamy and Marriage . 


PAGE 


94 
95 


97 
103 
107 


116 


116 
118 


125 


127 


129 
130 
131 


132 
133 
134 
135 
136 
136 
137 
138 
138 
139 


CHAPTER 


Vil 


Vill 


IX 


XI 


XII 


CONTENTS 


SETTLEMENT IN OHIO , 
1. The Church at Kirtland . 
2. Business Ventures and Failures . 
3. Immoralities, Dissensions and Flight 
4. Entrance of Brigham Young, Mas- 
ter Mind of Mormonism . 
REMOVAL TO MISSOURI . 
I. In Jackson County 
2. Further Troubles in and eration 
from Missouri . 
SETTLEMENT IN ILLINOIS 
1. A Mormon Town Rises on the River 
2. Smith Enters National Politics . 
3. The Tragedy at Nauvoo . 
4. Character of Joseph Smith . 
5. Last Days at. Nauvoo. 


BEGINNINGS OF MORMON POLYG- 


BMS a vy 
1. Early Riancn Teachie 
2. Later Official Teaching . 


THE REORGANIZED CHURCH OF 
LATTER-DAY SAINTS ’ 


1. Early Divisions Among the Mor- 
mons 


2. The Doctrines aid Growin of he 
Reorganized Church maa 


THE FLIGHT TO THE MOUNTAINS 
1. Across the Plains of Iowa . i 
2. From Iowa to the Great Salt Lake . 


3. The Disastrous Hand-Cart Here 
tion . 


xvii 
PAGE 
143 
143 
146 
I51 


155 
158 
159 


161 


167 
168 
172 
174 


177 
182 


186 
186 
18g 


195 
195 


197 


199 
td 
201 


203 


xviii 


CHAPTER 


XIII 


XIV 


XV 


XVI 


XVII 


XVIII 


CONTENTS 


MORMON MISSIONS 
1. Early Mormon Missions . 
2. Mormon Missions Abroad . 
3. Later Mormon Missions . 


THE) CUDY BY veTH EGR AG csr i 
LAKE : Roly ane 
1. The Valley and the habe. : 
2. The Founding and het of the 
City rae ene : 
3. “Salt -Lake® City Today } 


EARLY HISTORY IN UTAH 
I. Political Organization 


2. First Clash with the Federal Corea 
ment : ; , 2 4 


3. The Mormon War 


MORMONISM AND MURDER . 
I. The Doctrine of Blood Atonement . 
2. The Practice of the Doctrine . 
3. The Mountain Meadows Massacre . 
4. Explanation of this Doctrine and 
Spirit 


MORMONISM DURING THE CIVIL 
WAR , 


1. Mormon gis seat es Utes 
2. Federal Action 


BRIGHAM YOUNG, MONARCH OF 
MORMONISM ., 


I. Gentile Irruption ‘ant Bigsiniees 
Monopoly : 


PAGE 
209 
209 
213 
217 


221 
221 


223 
227 


232 
232 


234 
236 


24+ 
244 
246 
250 
259 
262 
263 
265 
269 


269 


CONTENTS xix 


CHAPTER PAGE 
2. Revolt Lifts Its Head SHER 273 
3. The Prophet at the Height of FNS 
OW er sary aaiee 278 
4. The Wives of the Peebater mf eM) Al Mabe} 0. 
Rovio weattvor tne brophetur: «ray sn 20d 


MOC THE SURRENDER. OF POLYGAMY: 205 
1. The Mormon System of Polygamy . 296 
2. The Course of the Legislation 


Against Polygamy. . . AuusOr 

3. The Mormon Manifesto of fone tite 

Ae Was the Manifesto Keptr 94,30 3m 

Ree cunrWiGhT) FOR STATEHOOD: oi 7 310 
Ty pari iWreams of Feminine 7) vai.) palo 

POM EDSICO FALCHOOULS Veen e Cie a an ae 
ara aS Av LA eatin Upset gh teh At uiceeraeat 

Ae MORMONTISM TODAY oi. is 232 


1. Mormonism Growing and Aggressive 333 
2. Has the Mormon Practice of Polyg- 


amy Ceased? . 342 
3. The Testimony of Raden Prot! 
estant Ministers . . 344 
4. Concluding Ponda SO VMGIA sec ich 
A. Mormonism is an errant form 
of Gerson Oa Sine 355 
B. The ‘menace’ of Monnonien 
IS, abated (sores. 356 
C. Mormonism has inner therks 
and self-limitations . . 358 
D. How to meet and deal with it 359 


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ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACING PAGE 


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THE TRUTH ABOUT 
MORMONISM 


CHAPTER [| 
THE ROOTS OF MORMONISM 


ELIGION is one of the most universal and im- 
portant facts in our human world. Man 

is constitutionally and inescapably religious. Car- 
lyle says that a man’s religion is the deepest thing 
in him, and even Herbert Spencer declares that 
“religion expresses some eternal fact’ and “concerns 
each and all of us more than any other matter what- 
ever.” Any religion, then, is worthy of our interest 
and study and may have valuable lessons to teach us. 
Mormonism is a new religion which America has 
produced and contributed to the world. Springing 
from our American soil and common Christianity it 
has yet sent out its lines to all the earth and aspires 
to world dominion. It proclaims itself a new and 
fuller and final revelation of Christianity which is to 
supersede all existing religions. Such a notable am- 
bitious and aggressive religious movement must 
have some ground for its being, and however often 


it has been examined it recurrently challenges our 
25 


26 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


attention and thorough investigation, that we may 
discover the secret of its success, find out and utilize 
any truth it may contain, intelligently and efficiently 
oppose any errors it embodies and any evils it is 
causing, and learn any lessons it may teach. 

The writer proposes to examine this religious 
product of our own soil in its origin and history 
and practical working in as fair and impartial spirit 
as possible, and while he cannot hope wholly to es- 
cape from the influence of his own convictions and 
unconscious preferences, yet he will endeavor to 
treat it from an objective and dispassionate point of 
view. There are always some grains of truth in the 
largest heap of error, and it is this truth that gives 
error its power to sprout and spread and multiply; 
and it should be our endeavor to seize this grain 
of truth and see that it is properly planted and cul- 
tivated in our own field. There must be important 
truth in Mormonism, and we should strive to do 
justice to the followers of Joseph Smith. 

Every founder of a system of religion is a child 
of his age, and every form of human belief and 
practice grows out of its environment. We shall 
therefore first look at the roots of Mormonism. 


I. THE RELIGIOUS NATURE OF MAN 


Deeper than all religions is religion. The univer- 
sal religious nature of man is the soil out of which 
all religions, pagan and Christian, spring. This re- 


THE ROOTS OF MORMONISM 27 


ligious nature is rooted in the intuitions and instincts 
and emotions, and in the reason and will and con- 
science of man and pervades his whole being. It 
acts with the universality and spontaneity and force 
of an instinct to turn man to his Maker as the flower 
turns to the sun and the needle to the pole. Man 
is not religious because he reasons and wills to be 
so, but because he cannot help it. He is constitu- 
tionally and inescapably religious and prays to or 
yearns for God almost as instinctively as he 
breathes. Even when he thinks he is denying re- 
ligion he is trying to feed his spiritual nature with 
some kind of religious bread, though it be a husk or 
a stone. The absurdest creed and falsest faith and 
vilest rite and most hideous idol afford some sort of 
religious satisfaction. God has set eternity in the 
heart of man, and therefore eternity comes out of 
it and feels after the Father of spirits if haply it 
may find him. 

Mormonism is a religion and springs out of this 
universal soil. It has a creed and Bible and church 
and promises salvation for sin and eternal life. It 
is not to be denied or doubted that it supplies its 
adherents with some measure of spiritual satisfac- 
tion. People do not build temples and carry on wor- 
ship for nothing. All sincere worshipers derive some 
benefit from their faith, however deep may be its 
error and dark its practice. The falsest faith bears 
witness to the reality of religion and catches some 


28 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


gleams of that Light “which lighteth every man, 
coming into the world.” 

This is the deepest root of Mormonism, and it 
grows out of the field of the religious nature of 
man; but in this field there grow not only good grain 
but also grain of inferior quality and also weeds. 


2. HUMAN CREDULITY. 


The human mind has an enormous capacity for 
belief. On the slightest evidence and against all the 
grounds of reason and right it can seize upon a be- 
lief and hug it to its heart and cherish it as an in- 
dubitable truth and kindle it into a passion and fierce 
fanaticism. Hence all the world is a dust of sys- 
tems and of creeds, and no creed is so grotesque and 
no practice is so revolting that some religionist will 
not profess and follow it. 

Money, medicine and religion are three fields in 
which credulity flourishes prolifically and runs riot. 
Show people a quick scheme to get rich, or a sure 
panacea for disease, or a smooth and plausible nov- 
elty in religion and many of them will lose all sense 
ot reason and reality and swallow the bait unques- 
tioningly and become enthusiasts and fanatics in 
its behalf. 

False religious prophets are usually men or 
women of unbounded credulity and gullibility, and 
having deluded themselves they play upon the cre- 
dulity of others and hypnotize them by the hundreds 


THE ROOTS OF MORMONISM 29 


and thousands. Credulity is contagious. It mul- 
tiplies like the germs of disease and may infect 
whole communities and spread over states and con- 
tinents. 

The founders of Mormonism were among the 
most gullible people of the nineteenth century. They 
could profess to believe the most absurd things that 
run squarely against all our tested knowledge and 
contradict our very senses. Joseph Smith’s family 
were notorious for their superstition, and he was 
capable of believing anything. These victims of 
their own credulity were masters in playing upon 
the credulity of their followers, and the fact that 
there are so many people that are capable of being 
caught with religious novelties was and is one of the 
reasons and roots of their success. 


3. SELF-DECEPTION 


Let us not think, however, that these prophets 
were pure impostors. The human mind has great 
ability and skill in deceiving itself. It can make 
the worse appear the better reason and get itself 
to believe anything it wants to believe. “The will 
to believe” can set things in such a light and so select 
and intensify certain motives to the exclusion of 
others that it can turn the blackest falsehood into 
the semblance of truth. The mind sees all things 
through the medium of its own inherited instincts 
and emotional temperament and of its preconcep- 


80 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


tions and beliefs and desires, and these may beget 
and color convictions and passions that are contrary 
to all human knowledge and sanity and yet that may 
never be disturbed with doubt. The human mind 
often has unconscious causes of its beliefs that are 
deeper than all its conscious reasons. 

Joseph Smith was a strange compound of contra- 
dictory elements, and the keenest psychoanalysis 
would fail to draw any clear line between sincere 
self-deception and conscious duplicity in his motives 
and methods. He gives evidence of imposture in 
some of his moments and means, but he was also a 
believer in his message and mission. 


4. SELF-INTEREST 


Self-interest is one of the most pervasive and 
powerful of human motives and enters deeply even 
into religion. It may spring from three chief roots, 
and we believe they were all present in the origin 
of Mormonism. ‘These are money, power and sen- 
sual gratification. The mercenary motive has ever 
lurked around religion, and some religions are deeply 
marked by it. Joseph Smith was a prophet who had 
a keen scent for profit. He soon developed into an 
autocrat and despot with an inordinate ambition 
and greed for power, and ruled his church and fol- 
lowers with an iron hand. Mormonism is deeply 
stained with sensuality. The spirit and the flesh lie 
close together in human nature, and it is only a step 


THE ROOTS OF MORMONISM 31 


and a slip from one into the other. Sensuality has 
ever been one of the most subtle temptations and 
greatest dangers of religion and has often degraded 
its light into darkness. 

Joseph Smith by his own confession was in his 
youth loose in his morals, and he introduced and 
practiced a doctrine in his religion and church that 
has excited the indignation of the Christian world. 


5. LOCAL SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS 


The roots of Mormonism so far mentioned are 
general human capacities and motives, and a more 
specific cause of its origin is to be found in the local 
social and religious conditions out of which it arose. 
The first half of the nineteenth century was a fer- 
menting time in New England and the states lying 
immediately to the west, when social and religious 
conditions were in a transition stage. The older 
extreme orthodoxy had encountered violent reac- 
tion in which one extreme begot another, and all 
manner of erratic movements and creeds emerged 
out of the chaos, free thinking, scepticism, mesmer- 
ism, spiritualism, occultism, faith healing, and many 
other strange cults and ephemeral fads flourished, 
some of them having a very brief day. 

The Smith family lived in these conditions in Ver- 
mont and must have absorbed some of their influ- 
ences into their sensitive and highly receptive na- 
tures. In 1814, in Joseph’s tenth year, the family 


32 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


removed to Palmyra in Northern New York. The 
region was then the “West” and was largely unre- 
claimed from the wilderness, and primitive social 
conditions prevailed and life was a burden and battle 
of toil. Only a few log huts stood where now 
stands the splendid city of Rochester. The Indians 
in their feathers and paint still loitered around the 
villages and infested the neighboring forests, and 
their ominous presence was an ever-impending dan- 
ger and anxiety. Indian history and lore, tradi- 
tions and tragedies filled the cabins of the settlers 
with marvelous tales of adventures and escapes and 
exciting news of terrible happenings and whispered 
fears of imminent attack as they sat around their 
blazing log fires in the stillness and dread of the 
night. Joseph Smith absorbed these stories and 
they furnished him the Indian lore that forms so 
large a portion of his book. 

Northern New York was also in a state of reli- 
gious unrest and upheaval at this time. Presbyte- 
rianism and Methodism were the prevailing Prot- 
estant denominations, but in spite of Calvinistic 
orthodoxy and Methodist revivalistic exhortation 
and fervency there was much scepticism abroad. 
Tom Paine’s Age of Reason was copiously circu- 
lated, and there were those who were interested in 
seeing that a cheap edition of the book, printed in 
France, was given freely away. This religious un- 
rest was intensified by the fierce denominational ri- 
valries and internal strifes, the Methodist body alone 


THE ROOTS OF MORMONISM 33 


undergoing four divisions between 1814 and 1830. 
The Presbyterians were also having their internal 
troubles, and rumors and charges of heresy were in 
the air. In 1834 the Presbytery of Geneva was 
charged with “sixteen gross errors in doctrine,” and 
in 1837 the General Assembly adjudged that the 
four Synods of Genesee, Geneva, Utica and Western 
Reserve were “out of connection with the Presbyte- 
rian Church,” thus dividing this body into the Old 
and the New School branches. 

The abduction of William Morgan, the Mason, 
in 1826, resulting in the formation of the Anti- 
Masonic Party, created immense excitement, not 
only in Western New York where it occurred, but 
throughout the country. Later, spiritualism arose 
in connection with the performances of the Fox 
sisters near Rochester, and the wave of mesmerism 
and other occult doctrines and practices that rolled 
over New England reached the remote regions of 
New York. | 

Joseph Smith, highly excitable and impressionable 
and absorbent, was immersed in this atmosphere 
from his tenth to his twenty-sixth year, and these 
were the formative years of his life when he gath- 
ered his materials and shaped his ideas and dreamed 
his dreams and produced his book. All these fer- 
menting movements and exciting events left their 
impress on his receptive mind and imagination and 
marvelously tenacious memory and entered into the 


34 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


contents of his revelations and his Bible, as will ap- 
pear in the due course of this study. 

It was out of this soil and of these roots of the 
religious nature of man, human credulity, self-de- 
ception, self-interest, and local social and religious 
conditions that Mormonism grew. 


CHAPTER II 


JOSEPH SMITH: ANCESTRY, BOYHOOD 
AND YOUTH 


ORMONISM, like most historical religions, 

had its origin in a founder and his book. 
Joseph Smith is the name of the man that bears 
this responsibility in the case of this religion. We 
shall first sketch the family history and the early 
years of the founder of this faith, and then proceed 
to examine his book. 


I. ANCESTRY, 


The Smith family, from which “Joe” Smith, as he 
was familiarly known, sprang, was of Scotch de- 
scent and mixed Presbyterian and Methodist 
proclivities, and we first meet with them in Vermont. 
In this state at Turnbridge, on January 24, 1796, 
Joseph Smith, Senior, and Lucy Mack were joined 
in wedlock, and of this union there were born nine 
children, of whom the fourth became the Mormon 
prophet. 

The father of Lucy Mack was Solomon Mack, of 
whom considerable is known, as he was a celebrated 


character among his neighbors in his day and was 
35 


36 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


long remembered as a feeble queer old man who rode 
around the country selling his autobiography. This 
Narrative of the Life of Solomon Mack, as the title 
of the rare little book reads, consists of forty-eight 
pages of ill-spelt English and gives an account of 
his experiences as a farm boy, a soldier in Indian 
campaigns and in the Revolutionary War, of his 
varied occupations as teamster, sutler, privateer, of 
his conversion at the age of seventy-six, when he 
“saw a bright light in a dark night’? and when, as 
he wrote, “I thought the Lord called and I had but 
a moment to live.” These visions and voices indi- 
cate a psychopathic susceptibility to abnormal ex- 
periences which was the hereditary fountain from 
which descended the same ill-balanced nervous na- 
ture that marked the epileptic grandson who became 
noted as the prophet of Mormonism. 

Lucy Smith, the daughter of Solomon Mack and 
the mother of Joe, inherited this psychopathic na- 
ture in an intensified degree. She was of vigorous 
and forceful personality and determined will, but 
she received little schooling and was semi-illiterate, 
and she was given to dreams and visions and was 
extremely credulous and superstitious. She believed 
in demons, as her husband believed in witchcraft, 
and she was given to fortune telling as a gainful 
occupation. She wrote Biographical Sketches of 
Joseph Smith, though it is suspected with assistance, 
a book which “teems with dreams, visions and mi- 
raculous cures. These were, in truth, ‘events of in- 


JOSEPH SMITH: ANCESTRY AND YOUTH 37 


finite importance,’ to one who was not wont to dis- 
tinguish between subjective illusions and objective 
realities.’* She also heard a supernatural voice 
and had a miraculous recovery. Though both a 
‘Presbyterian and a Methodist minister made special 
efforts to convert her, she had a strong aversion to 
denominations and refused to join any church, de- 
claring that “there was not on earth the religion she 
sought”; yet she had a Presbyterian minister bap- 
tize her. Her eldest brother belonged to the ‘“‘Seek- 
ers,’ who held that miracles were necessary to faith, 
and one of her sisters was also miraculously cured. 
The mother of the prophet thus had psychic experi- 
ences that were hereditary antecedents and predis- 
positions culminating in her son’s dreams and 
doings. 

Joseph Smith, Senior, was a man of many trades 
even for a New England Yankee. By turns he was 
farmer, storekeeper, dealer in ginseng, well-digger, 
hunter for Captain Kidd’s treasure, and even a 
counterfeiter, as “he became implicated with one 
Jack Downing in counterfeiting money, but turned 
state’s evidence and escaped the penalty.” He kept 
roving around in several New England states until 
1815, when he removed with his family to Palmyra, 
N. Y., where he displayed a sign, “Cake and Beer 
Shop,” selling “gingerbread, pies, boiled eggs, root 
beer, and other like notions,” and “‘he and his sons 


*Riley, The Founder of Mormonism, p. 20. 
® Historical Magazine, 1870. 


38 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


did odd jobs, gardening, harvesting, and well-dig- 
ging, when they could get them.” 

Joseph Smith, Senior, also had “visions.” They 
began in 1811 and continued until they had filled up 
the sacred number of seven, and among them were 
two that entered into the origin and make-up of 
Mormonism; for “the vision of the Magic Box gives 
the clue for the young prophet’s discovery of the 
Golden Plates, and the vision of the Fruit Tree is 
substantially reproduced in the Book of Mormon.” 
The father of the prophet was associated with the 
son in the development of his religion, the son 
founding for him the office of “Patriarch” in ac- 
cordance with one of his “revelations.” 

This ancestry discloses strains of psychic abnor- 
mality, susceptibility to and belief in dreams and 
visions and supernatural revelations and miracles, 
illiteracy and credulity, and religious excitability, 
eccentricity and superstition that go far to explain 
the erratic psychopathic and religious nature of the 
founder of Mormonism. When we see the parents, 
so sensitive to and absorbent of all the peculiar isms | 
of their fermenting time, we are not surprised at 
the son. 


2. BIRTH AND BOYHOOD 


Joseph Smith was one of those children born in 
utmost obscurity and poverty who yet have been des- 
tined to attain to worldwide fame, in some instances 


JOSEPH SMITH: ANCESTRY AND YOUTH = 39 


of an honorable and in other instances of a discredit- 
able nature. One of the strangest of these cases was 
that of the boy born in Vermont and brought up in 
primitive conditions in Western New York who be- 
came the founder of a new religion that has since 
carried his name to the ends of the earth. Joseph 
Smith, Junior, was born at Sharon, Vermont, on De- 
cember 23, 1805. He received less than a year of 
schooling in his boyhood, and we learn little of his 
life during the peripatetic wanderings of his father 
through Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachu- 
setts until the removal to Palmyra, N. Y., in 1815, 
when Joe was ten years of age. 

After living three and a half years at Palmyra the 
Smiths moved two miles to the south near the vil- 
lage of Manchester where they squatted on a piece 
of unoccupied land and put up a log house consist- 
ing of two rooms and an attic. Here they carried 
on their various occupations of selling cordwood, 
brooms, vegetables, maple sugar and cakes, and the 
boys hunted and fished and loafed around the vil- 
lage store. The father and several of the sons 
could not read, and of Joseph, Junior, Orson Pratt, 
a Mormon biographer of the prophet, wrote: “He 
could read without much difficulty, and write an im- 
perfect hand, and had a very limited understanding 
of the elementary rules of arithmetic. These were 
his highest and only attainments, while the rest of 
those branches so universally taught in the com- 
mon schools throughout the United States were en- 


40 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


tirely unknown to him.” *? We also are told that 
his favorite books were the Life of Stephen Bur- 
roughs, “a scoundrel dressed in the garb of the 
church,” and the autobiography of the pirate Kidd. 
He afterward admitted that the pirate’s story made 
a deep impression on him and that he was fascinated 
by the lines that are found in it: 


My name is Robert Kidd, 
As I sailed, as I sailed; 
And most wickedly I did, 
God’s laws I did forbid, 
As I sailed, as I sailed.* 


This admission is in keeping with another con- 
fession which he made, declaring that in his youth 
he “frequently fell into many foolish errors, and 
displayed the weakness of youth and the corruption 
of human nature, which, I am sorry to say, led me 
into diverse temptations, to the gratification of many 
appetites offensive in the sight of God.” * These 
“diverse temptations” were especially drunkenness 
and immorality. 

One who knew him intimately in his boyhood 
writes of him: 


He was lounging, idle (not to say vicious ), and possesed 
of less than ordinary intelligence. He used to come into 
the village of Palmyra with little jags of wood from his 
backwoods home; sometimes patronizing a village grocery 
too freely; sometimes finding an odd job to do about the 


®* Remarkable Visions, quoted by Linn, Story, p. 12. 
“Kennedy, Early Days of Mormonism, p. 13. 
° Pearl of Great Price, p. 88. 


JOSEPH SMITH: ANCESTRY AND YOUTH 41 


store of Seymour Scoville, and once a week he would stroll 
into the office of the old Palmyra Register for his father’s 
paper. How impious in us young dare-devils to once in a 
while blacken the face of the then meddling, inquisitive 
lounger with the old-fashioned balls, when he used to put 
himself in the way of the old-fashioned Rammage 
press. ... But Joseph had little ambition, and some 
very laudable aspirations. ‘The mother’s intellect oc- 
casionally shone out in him, especially when he used to 
help us solve some portentous questions of moral or 
political ethics.® 


Another intimate personal acquaintance of Smith 
when he was about thirteen years of age testifies 
that he was “‘a dull-eyed, flaxen-haired, prevaricat- 
ing boy, noted only for his indolent and vagabondish 
character, and his habits of exaggeration and un- 
truthfulness,” whom his father boasted of as the 
“genus of the family.” And “it has been again and 
again quoted that even Brigham Young declared 
that ‘The Prophet was a man of mean birth; that he 
was wild, intemperate, even dishonest and tricky in 
his youth.’ ” 7 

When a storm of revivalism swept over Western 
New York in his boyhood, his susceptible nature was 
caught and stirred by the excitement, he listened in- 
tently to the religious controversy that attended it 
and he was swept on a wave into the Methodist 
church on probation. He now took to reading the 
Bible and to expounding Scripture. 


*Kennedy, Early Days of Mormonism, pp. 13-14. 
"Tbid., pp. 14, 16. 


42 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


His mind was retentive ; he was possessed of a rude elo- 
quence of speech, and had that rare power of expression 
that to the stranger or the simple would seem the outward 
form of a sincere belief within. The more mysterious 
and complex the chapter of Scripture to which he gave 
attention, the more open and bold his explanation and 
application when surrounded by auditors who did not 
surpass him in knowledge.® 


However, this conversion had “‘no depth of earth” 
and presently withered away, he severed his slight 
connection with the church, and was soon heard 
denouncing sectarianism and declaring that all 
churches were built on a false foundation. 


3. A MONEY-DIGGER AND PEEK-STONE EXPERT 


Joseph Smith, Senior, was a well-digger who lo- 
cated water by means of a divining rod or forked 
hazel switch, and Joe even when a lad professed the 
same skill. Presently he became acquainted with 
the magic art, then much in vogue, of “seeing” 
things by means of a “peek-stone.” Almost any 
stone, especially if it had some peculiarity in its ap- 
pearance, would serve for this purpose, and the 
common mode of using it was to place it in a hat and 
then thrust the face into the hat so as to shut out 
the light, and when the seer thus looked at the mystic 
stone all sorts of secrets, it was claimed, would be 
revealed and visions would be seen. Stories of hid- 
den treasures, concealed by Indians or robbers or 

* Kennedy, Early Days of Mormonism, pp. 15-17. 


JOSEPH SMITH: ANCESTRY AND YOUTH 43 


pirates in caves and pits, weré rife in those days, 
and the business of hunting them and locating them 
by magic means was a favorite occupation. 

Joe Smith became an expert at this business. 
“Long before the idea of a golden Bible entered 
their (the Smiths’) minds, in their excursions for 
money-digging, . . . Joe used to be usually their 
guide, putting into a hat a peculiar stone he had, 
through which he looked to decide where they should 
begin to dig.” °® He obtained his “peek-stone” in 
the following manner: Willard Chase, of Man- 
chester, employed Joe and his brother to assist him 
in digging a well. “After digging about twenty 
feet,” he says, “we discovered a singularly appear- 
ing stone which excited my curiosity. I brought it 
to the top of the well, and as we were examining 
it, Joseph put it into his hat and then his face into 
the top of the hat. . . . After obtaining the stone 
he began to publish abroad what wonders he could 
discover by looking into it.” *° 

Mormon writers are reluctant to admit that their 
prophet was a money-digger, but the fact is ad- 
mitted by the prophet himself in his autobiography, 
as published in the Millennial Star, as follows: 


In the month of October, 1825, I hired with an old 
gentleman by the name of Josiah Stoal, who lived in 
Chenango County, State of New York. He had heard 
something of a silver mine having been opened by the 

*Rey. John A. Clark in Gleanings by the Way (1842), quoted by 


Linn, Story, p. 20. 
* Tbid., p. 20. 


44, THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


Spaniards at Harmony, Susquehanna County, State of 
Pennsylvania, and had, previous to my being with him, 
been digging in order, if possible, to discover the mine. 
After I went to live with him he took me, among the rest 
of his hands, to dig for the silver mine, at which I con- 
tinued to work for nearly a month, without success in our 
undertaking, and finally I prevailed with the old gentle- 
man to cease digging for it. Hence arose the very preva- 
lent story of my having been a money-digger. 


His mother also in her Biographical Sketches of 
him says that “Stoal came for Joseph on account of 
having heard that he possessed certain keys by which 
he could discern things invisible to the natural eye.” 
J. B. Buck gives a circumstantial account of a stone 
owned by one Jack Belcher and says: “Joe Smith, 
conceiving the idea of making a fortune through 
a similar process of ‘seeing,’ bought the stone of 
Belcher, and then began his operations in directing 
where hidden treasures could be found.” ** 

It was part of the art of finding hidden riches by 
the “peek-stone” to require a black sheep to be sacri- 
fied to overcome the evil spirit that guarded the 
treasure. On one occasion a neighbor of the Smiths 
furnished the sheep, but the sacrifice was in vain. 
The Smiths, however, made off with the carcass 
and ate the sheep. “This, I believe,” said the con- 
tributor of the sheep, “is the only time they ever 
made money-digging a profitable business.” 

The evidence is abundant and conclusive that dur- 


™ For these and other testimonies on this point, see Linn, Story, 
pp. 15-22, and Hyde, Mormonism, 263-265. 


JOSEPH SMITH: ANCESTRY AND YOUTH 465 


ing the seven or eight years preceding his alleged 
discovery of the Gold Plates Joe Smith used “‘peek- 
stones” and was known as a professional money- 
digger. 

It was while on one of his money-digging trips 
to Harmony (now Oakland), Susquehanna County, 
Pa., that Joseph Smith met, eloped with and, on 
January 18, 1827, married Emma, the daughter of 
Isaac Hale, “a distinguished hunter, a zealous mem- 
ber of the Methodist church, and a man of excellent 
moral character and of undoubted integrity.” Joe 
took his wife to his home near Palmyra, N. Y., and 
in the following August hired a neighbor named 
Peter Ingersol to go with him to Pennsylvania to 
get his wife’s household goods. Of this trip Inger- 
sol said, in an affidavit made in 1833: 

When we arrived at Mr. Hale’s in Harmony, Pa., from 
which place he had taken his wife, a scene presented itself 
truly affecting. His father-in-law addressed Joseph in 
a flood of tears: “You have stolen my daughter and mar- 
ried her. I had much rather have followed her to her 
grave. You spend your time in digging for money— 
pretend to see in a stone, and thus try to deceive people.” 
Joseph wept and acknowledged that he could not see in a 
stone now nor never could, and that his former preten- 
sions in that respect were false. He then promised to give 
up his old habits of digging for money and looking into 
stones.?? 

Mr. Hale issued a signed statement, under date 
of March 20, 1834, in which he gives an account 
of his meeting with young Smith, of his money- 

* Howe, Mormonism Unveiled, pp. 234-235. 


46 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


digging, marriage with his daughter, promise to go 
to work for a living, and of his “silly fabrication of 
falsehood and wickedness” in connection with the 
Book of Mormon, to which we shall refer later.** 


4. GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE SMITH FAMILY 


The character of the Smith family in general and 
of Joe in particular is set forth in a number of 
statements and affidavits made by those who per- 
sonally knew them. The first one here presented was 
made by Daniel Hendrix, who was an assistant in 
setting type and reading the proof of the Mormon 
Bible in Palmyra, N. Y., and is as follows: 


Every one knew him as Joe Smith. Joe was the most 
ragged, lazy fellow in the place, and that is saying a 
good deal. . . . He was a good talker, and would have 
made a fine stump speaker if he had had the training. 
He was known among the young men I associated with 
as a romancer of the first water. I never knew so igno- 
rant a man as Joe was to have such a fertile imagination. 
He never could tell a common occurrence in his daily life 
without embellishing the story with his imagination; yet 
I remember that he was grieved one day when old Parson 
Reed told Joe that he was going to hell for his lying 
habits.*4 


Eleven of “the most prominent and respectable 
citizens of Manchester,” under date of November 
3, 1833, affixed their names to this emphatic 
declaration: 


* This statement will be found in Kennedy, Early Days, pp. 38-41. 
“Linn, Story, p. 13. 


JOSEPH SMITH: ANCESTRY AND YOUTH 47 


We, the undersigned, being personally acquainted with 
the family of Joseph Smith, Sr., with whom the Gold 
Bible, so-called, originated, state: That they were not only 
a lazy, indolent set of men, but also intemperate, and their 
word was not to be depended upon; and that we are 
truly glad to dispense with their society. 


On December 4, 1833, sixty-two residents of 
Palmyra signed the following declaration: 


We, the undersigned, have been acquainted with the 
Smith family for a number of years, while they resided 
near this place, and we have no hesitation in saying that 
we consider them destitute of that moral character which 
ought to entitle them to the confidence of any community. 
They were particularly famous for visionary projects; 
spent much of their time in digging for money which they 
pretended was hid in the earth, and to this day large exca- 
vations may be seen in the earth, not far from their 
residence, where they used to spend their time in digging 
for hidden treasures. Joseph Smith, Sr., and his son 
Joseph were, in particular, considered entirely destitute 
of moral character, and addicted to vicious habits. 


The following affidavit was made by Parley 
Chase: 


Manchester, New York, December 2, 1833. I was ac- 
quainted with the family of Joseph Smith, Sr., both before 
and since they became Mormons, and feel free to state 
that not one of the male members of the Smith family 
were entitled to any credit whatsoever. They were lazy, 
intemperate, and worthless men, very much addicted to 
lying. In this they frequently boasted their skill. 
Digging for money was their principal employment. In 
regard to their Gold Bible speculation, they scarcely ever 
told two stories alike. The Mormon Bible is said to be 


48 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


a revelation from God, through Joseph Smith, Jr., his 
Prophet, and this same Joseph Smith, Jr., to my knowl- 
edge, bore the reputation among his neighbors of being 
ailiar,*” 


One of the most reliable and interesting of the 
early books on Mormonism is Gleanings by the Way, 
by Rev. John A. Clark, D.D., who at one time lived 
in Western New York and wrote as follows (p. 


340) : 


One thing, however, is distinctly to be noted in the his- 
tory of this imposture. There are no Mormons in Manches- 
ter or Palmyra, the place where this Book of Mormon was 
pretended to be found. You might as well go down into 
the crater of Vesuvius and attempt to build an ice-house 
amid its molten and boiling lava, as to convince any in- 
habitant in either of these towns, that Joe Smith’s pre- 
tensions are not the most gross and egregious falsehood. 
It was indeed a wise stroke of policy, for those who got 
up this imposture, and who calculated to make their for- 
tune by it, to emigrate to a place where they were wholly 
unknown. 


Finally we give in part the testimony of Mrs. 
Horace Eaton, who was a resident of Palmyra for 
thirty-two years and had this to say of the Smiths, 
mother and son: 


As far as Mormonism was connected with its reputed 
founder, Joseph Smith, always called “Joe Smith,” it had 
its origin in the brain and heart of an ignorant, deceitful 
mother. Joe Smith’s mother moved in the lowest walks 
of life, but she had a kind of mental power, which her 


* These last three and other statements were obtained by E. D. 
Howe and published in his Mormonism Unveiled in 1834. 


JOSEPH SMITH: ANCESTRY AND YOUTH 49 


son shared. With them both the imagination was the 
commanding faculty. It was vain, but vivid. To it was 
subsidized reason, conscience, truth. Both mother and 
son were noted for a habit of extravagant assertion. They 
would look a listener full in the eye, and, without confu- 
sion or blanching, would fluently improvise startling 
statements and exciting stories, the warp and woof of 
which were alike sheer falsehood. ... The mother of 
the high priest of Mormonism was superstitious to the 
last degree. The very air she breathed was inhabited by 
“familiar spirits that peeped and wizards that muttered.” 
She turned many a penny by tracing in the lines of the 
open palm the fortunes of the inquirer. All ominous 
signs were heeded. No work was commenced on Friday. 
The moon over the left shoulder portended calamity; the 
breaking of a mirror, death. Even in the Old Green 
Mountain State, before the family emigrated to the Gene- 
see country (the then West), Mrs. Smith’s mind was 
made up that one of her sons should be a prophet. The 
weak father agreed with her that Joseph was the “genus” 
of their nine children. So it was established that Joseph 
should be the prophet. To such an extent did the mother 
impress this idea upon the boy, that all the instincts of 
childhood were restrained. He rarely smiled or laughed. 
“His thoughts and looks were always downward bent.” 
He never indulged in the demonstrations of fun, since! 
they would not be in keeping with the profound dignity 
of his allotted vocation. His mother inspired and aided 
him in every scheme of duplicity and cunning. All ac- 
quainted with the facts agree in saying that the evil 
spirit of Mormonism dwelt first in Joe Smith’s mother.?® 


Such were the family stock, hereditary constitu- 
tion, inherited beliefs, social and religious environ- 
ment, and personal moral character and practices of 
the founder of Mormonism. 

#* Shook, True Origin of Morgon Polygamy, pp. 19-20. 


CHAPTER III 
THE GOLDEN BIBLE: ITS ORIGIN 


HE stage is now set for ringing up the curtain 
on one of the boldest projects in the history 
of religion. This was nothing less than producing 
outright a new religion with its initial outfit of 
prophet and Bible, the ‘““Mormonism” which its | 
founder declared “would some day rule the world.” 
The ill-balanced, imaginative peek-stone user and 
money-digger, dreamer and deceiver who originated 
the idea probably did not conceive it all at once. It 
started as a germ in his fertile mind and grew apace 
as the prospect opened out before him and lured 
him on. 


I. THE VISIONS 


We have already seen that Joseph Smith, Jr., at 
the age of fifteen experienced a degree of conver- 
sion amidst the excitement of a Methodist revival. 
This was the occasion of the first “vision” which 
he experienced and which prepared the way for the 
second one in which was made to him, according to 


his own statement, the “revelation” as to the Golden 
50 


THE GOLDEN BIBLE: ITS ORIGIN 51 


Plates. The first one was occasioned by the “war 
of words and tumult of opinions” in connection with 
the Methodist revival when much denominational 
controversy was going on and he said to himself, 
“Who of all these parties are right? Or, are they 
all wrong together ?”’ 

On a bright spring morning (we are simply fol- 
lowing his own story), he went out into the woods 
to settle this question. As he prayed “immediately 
I was seized upon by some power which entirely 
overcame me,” and “thick darkness gathered around 
me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were 
doomed to sudden destruction.” “Just at this mo- 
ment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly 
over my head,” when “I saw two personages, whose 
brightness and glory defy all description, standing 
above me in their air. One of them spake unto me, 
calling me by name, and said (pointing to the other), 
‘This is my Beloved Son, hear Him.’” He then in- 
quired ‘which of all the sects was right,” and was 
told that “they were all wrong”’ and that he “must 
join none of them.” ” 

The narrative of this “vision” is followed with 
Smith’s reflections upon the fact that “an obscure 
boy, only between fourteen and fifteen years of age,” 
should have been vouchsafed such a vision, which he 
compares to that of Paul and with an account of the 

* His own account of these and other “visions” is found in “Ex- 
tracts from the History of Joseph Smith,” which is included in his 


Pearl of Great Price, pp. 81-101. 
* Pearl of Great Price, pp. 84-85. 


52 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


persecutions that it brought upon him. He also 
confesses that during the three years that elapsed 
between the first and the second vision that “I was 
left to all kinds of temptations, and mingling with all 
kinds of society, I frequently fell into many foolish 
errors, and displayed the weakness of youth, and 
the corruption of human nature, which I am sorry 
to say led me into divers temptations, to the grati- 
fication of many appetites offensive in the sight of 
God.” 

It is impossible to determine just what experiences 
Smith had in these alleged visions. His veracity 
has already been so seriously shaken and shattered 
that we cannot trust his narrative, especially as his 
History of Himself was written in 1838, eighteen 
years after the first vision, during which intetval 
he had plenty of both time and reasons for letting 
his imagination elaborate and embellish if not invent 
his story. Professor I. W. Riley, who examines 
Smith’s account with a psychologist’s technical 
knowledge, thinks he had some kind of epileptoid 
fits, but that the degree cannot be determined.? 


2. DISCOVERY OF THE GOLDEN PLATES 


Smith’s second “vision” came in 1823, three years 
after the first one. This one occurred at night as 
he was in bed and in prayer, when he discovered a 


*The Founder of Mormonism, Appendix II, “Epilepsy and the 
Visions.” 


THE GOLDEN BIBLE: ITS ORIGIN 53 


light and “immediately a personage appeared at my 
bedside,” and then the following revelation was 
made: 


He called me by name and said unto me that he was 
a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and 
that his name was Moroni. That God had a work for me 
to do, and that my name should be had for good and evil 
among all nations, kindreds, and tongues; or that it should 
be both good and evil spoken of among all people. He 
said there was a book deposited, written upon gold 
plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of 
this continent, and the source from which they sprang. 
He also said that the fulness of the everlasting Gospel was 
contained in it, as delivered by the Saviour to the ancient 
inhabitants. Also, that there were two stones in silver 
bows (and these stones, fastened to a breastplate, con- 
stituted what is called the Urim and Thummim) deposited 
with the plates, and the possession and use of these stones 
was what constituted Seers in ancient or former times, 
and that God had prepared them for the purpose of trans- 
lating the book. . . . Again, he told me that when I got 
those plates of which he had spoken (for the time that 
they should be obtained was not yet fulfilled) I should 
not show them to any person, neither the breastplate with 
the Urim and Thummim, only to those to whom I should 
be commanded to show them; if I did, I should be de- 
stroyed. While he was conversing with me about the 
plates, the vision was opened to my mind that I could 
see the place where the plates were deposited, and that 
so clearly and distinctly, that I knew the place again when 
I visited it. . . . By this time, so deep were the impres- 
sions made on my mind, that sleep had fled from my eyes, 
and I lay overwhelmed in astonishment at what I had 
both seen and heard; but what was my surprise when 
again I beheld the same messenger at my bedside, and 
heard him rehearse or repeat over again to me the same 
things as before, and added a caution to me, telling me 


54 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


that Satan would try to tempt me (in consequence of 
the indigent circumstances of my father’s family) to get 
the plates for the purpose of getting rich. This he forbid 
me, saying that I must have no other object in view in 
getting the plates but to glorify God, and must not be 
influenced by any other motive but that of building his 
kingdom, otherwise I could not get them.‘ 


Smith in his narrative goes on to tell that he 
arose the next morning after this vision so ex- 
hausted that he was unable to do his work and that 
his father, noticing his weakness, told him to go 
home; that on the way home in attempting to cross 
a fence he fell helpless to the ground and for a time 
was quite unconscious; that he then heard a voice 
and saw the same messenger and was commanded 
to go back to his father and tell him of the vision; 
and that on doing this his father told him that it was 
of God and to go and do as the messenger had com- 
manded. ‘The narrative then proceeds: 


I left the field and went to the place where the messenger 
had told me the plates were deposited, and owing to the 
distinctness of the vision which I had concerning it, I 
knew the place the instant that I arrived there. Conven- 
ient to the village of Manchester, Ontario County, New 
York, stands a hill of considerable size, and the most 
elevated of any in the neighborhood. On the west side of 
this hill, not far from the top, under a stone of consider- 
able size, lay the plates, deposited in a stone box; this stone 
was thick and rounding in the middle on the upper side, 
and thinner towards the edges, so that the middle part of 
it was visible above the ground, but the edge all round was 


*Pearl of Great Price, pp. 89-02. 


THE GOLDEN BIBLE: ITS ORIGIN 55 


covered with earth. Having removed the earth and ob- 
tained a lever which I got fixed under the edge of the 
stone, and with a little exertion raised it up, I looked in, 
and there indeed did I behold the plates, the Urim and 
Thummim, and the breastplate as stated by the messenger. 
The box in which they lay was formed by laying stones to- 
gether in some kind of cement. In the bottom of the box 
were laid two stones crossways of the box, and on these 
stones lay the plates and the other things with them. I 
made an attempt to take them out, but was forbidden by 
the messenger, and was again informed that the time for 
bringing them forth had not yet arrived, neither would 
arrive until four years from that time, and that he would 
there meet me, and that I should continue to do so until 
the time should come for obtaining the plates. 


Smith tells us that he visited the place each year 
according to the direction of the messenger until the 
event happened: 


At length the time arrived for obtaining the plates, 
the Urim and Thummim, and the Breastplate. On the 
22d day of September, 1827, having gone, as usual, at the 
end of another year, to the place where they were de- 
posited, the same heavenly messenger delivered them up 
to me with this charge, that I should be responsible for 
them; that if I should Jet them go carelessly or through 
any neglect of mine, I should be cut off; but that if I 
would use all my endeavors to preserve them, until he, 
the messenger, should call for them, they should be pro- 
tected. I soon found out the reason why I had received 
such strict charges to keep them safe, and why it was that 
the messenger had said, that when I had done what was re- 
quired at my hand, he would call for them; for no sooner 
was it known that I had them, than the most strenuous 
exertions were used to get them from me; every stratagem 
that could be invented was resorted to for that purpose; 


56 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


the persecution became more bitter and severe than be- 
fore, and multitudes were on the alert continually to get 
them from me if possible; but, by the wisdom of God, 
they remained safe in my hands, until I had accomplished 
by them what was required at my hand; when, according 
to arrangements, the messenger called for them, I de- 
livered them up to him, and he has them in his charge 
until this day, being the 2d day of May, 1838.° 


This story on the face of it is incredible and bears 
the marks of an invention, especially when read 
in the light of the reputation of its author as “very 
much addicted to lying” and as “a romancer of the 
first water.” However, we need not rest the case 
on the reputation of the author, for the story itself 
is all shot to pieces by contradictory evidence. Joe’s 
father told his story of the finding of the gold plates 
which was very different from Joe’s own story. 
The father said that the son, after his vision, got 
a horse and wagon with a chest and pillow-case and 
proceeded with his wife to the place indicated, that 
as he approached the place devils began to screech 
and scream, that he secured the uppermost article 
out of the box and put it in the pillow-case, but when 
he attempted to secure remaining articles, consisting 
of a gold hilt and chain and a gold ball, an old man 
dressed in bloody clothes appeared and said the time 
had not come to exhibit them, that the devils fol- 
lowed him and knocked him down, leaving “a black 
and blue spot” which “‘remained three or four days,” 
“but Joseph persevered and brought the article 

° Pearl of Great Price, pp. 95-060. 


THE GOLDEN BIBLE: ITS ORIGIN 57 


safely home.” “I weighed it, and it weighed thirty 
pounds.” ® Mother Smith also tells a similar story 
to the effect that Joseph went with his wife for the 
plates and makes this addition to the tale: “As he 
was taking them, the unhappy thought darted 
through his mind that probably there was something 
else in the box besides the plates, which would be of 
pecuniary advantage to him. . . . Joseph was over- 
come by the power of darkness, and forgot the in- 
junction that was laid upon him.” * 

We have already referred to the trip Joe made to 
Pennsylvania for his wife’s household goods when 
he took Peter Ingersol with him. Ingersol made 
an affidavit in 1833,-in which he said: 


One day he came and greeted me with joyful counte- 
nance. Upon asking the cause of his unusual happiness, 
he replied in the following language: “As I was passing 
yesterday across the woods, after a heavy shower of rain, 
I found in a hollow some beautiful white sand that had 
been washed up by the water. I took off my frock and 
tied up several quarts of it, and then went home. On en- 
tering the house I found the family at the table eating 
dinner. They were all anxious to know the contents of 
my frock. At that moment I happened to think about a 
history found in Canada, called the Golden Bible; so I 
very gravely told them it was the Golden Bible. To my 
surprise they were credulous enough to believe what I 
said. Accordingly I told them I had received a command- 
ment to let no one see it, for, says I, no man can see it with 
the natural eye and live. However, I offered to take out 


*Joseph Smith, Sr., told his story to Fayette Lapham, Esq., who 
records it in an article in the Historical Magazine for May, 1870. 
Ibid. 


58 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


the book and show it to them, but they refused to see it 
and left the room. Now,” said Joe, “I have got the 
d—d fools fixed and will carry out the fun.” Notwith- 
standing he told me he had no such book and believed 
there never was such a book, he told me he actually went 
to Willard Chase, to get him to make a chest in which he 
might deposit the Golden Bible. But as Chase would 
not do it, he made the box himself of clapboards, and put 
it into a pollow case, and allowed people only to lift it and 
feel of it through the case.® 


To Willard Chase, who had employed Joe in dig- 
ging the well in which the “peek-stone’”’ was found, 
he gave the following account of finding the plates: 


On the 22d of September he arose early in the morn- 
ing and took a one-horse wagon of some one that had 
stayed overnight at their house, without leave or license, 
and together with his wife, repaired to the hill which 
contained the book. He left his wife in the wagon by 
the road, and went alone to the hill, a distance of thirty 
or forty rods from the road. He said he then took the 
book out of the ground and hid it in a tree-top, and 
returned home. He then went to the town of Macedon 
to work. (Ten days later he went back and found the book 
safe.) On his return home he said he was attacked by 
two men in the woods, and knocked them both down and 
made his escape. Arrived safe and secured his treasure. 
A few days afterward he told one of my neighbors that 
he had not got any such book, and never had, but that 
he told the story to deceive the d d fool (meaning 
me), to get him to make the chest.® 





Joe also told his brother-in-law, Alva Hale, that 
“this ‘peeking’ was all d d nonsense,”’ and Joe’s 
*This affidavit is given by Howe in Mormonism Unveiled, pp. 


235-36. 
* Kennedy, Early Days, pp. 32-33. 





THE GOLDEN BIBLE: ITS ORIGIN 59 


father-in-law, Isaac Hale, in his statement declared 
that ‘the whole Book of Mormon (so-called) is a 
silly fabrication of falsehood and wickedness, got 
up for speculation, and with a design to dupe the 
credulous and unwary, and in order that its fabri- 
cators might live upon the spoils of those who swal- 
lowed the deception.” *° 

Abigail Harris, a relative of Martin Harris, of 
whom we shall hear presently, made an affirmation 
at Palmyra on November 28, 1833, in which she 
said she was at Martin Harris’s in 1828 when Jo- 
seph Smith, Sr., and his wife were present and 
there was talk about the Gold-Bible business, and 
“the old lady said that after the book was translated 
the plates were to be publicly exhibited at twenty- 
five cents admission,” and “she calculated it would 
bring in annually an enormous sum of money.” She 
then wanted to borrow five dollars of the visitor for 
Joseph, ‘to which I replied he might look in his 
stone, and save his time and money.” 

Joseph Capron, a neighbor of good character, also 
throws light on this money-making scheme as 
follows: 


At length Joseph pretended to find the gold plates. This 
scheme, he believed, would relieve the family from all 
pecuniary embarrassment. His father told me that when 
the book was published they would be enabled, from the 
profits of the work, to carry into successful operation the 
money-digging business. He gave me no intimation, at that 
time, that the book was to be of a religious character. . . . 


* Ibid., p. 41. 


60 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


He declared it to be a speculation, and, said he, ““When it 
is completed my family will be placed on a level above the 
generality of mankind!” 


“This testimony,” adds J. H. Kennedy, who re- 
cords Capron’s statement, “strengthens the belief 
that the later developments of Smith’s ‘speculations’ 
were undreamed of in the beginning.” * 

Pomeroy Tucker, who was acquainted with the 
Smiths and read a good deal of the proof of the 
original edition of the book, relates that two inti- 
mate friends of Smith, William T. Hussey and Azel 
Vandruver, on being refused a sight of the plates 
by Joe on the ground that they could not see them 
and live, declared their readiness to run the risk. 
Tucker continues the story: 


They were permitted to go to the chest with its owner, 
and see where the thing was, and observe its shape and 
size, concealed under a thick piece of canvas. Smith, with 
his accustomed solemnity of demeanor, positively persist- 
ing in his refusal to uncover it, Hussey became impetuous, 
and (suiting his action to his word) ejaculated, “Egad, 
I'll see the critter, live or die,” and stripping off the can- 
vas, a large tile brick was exhibited. But Smith’s fertile 
imagination was equal to the emergency. He claimed 
that his friends had been sold by a trick of his.?* 


At a trial in court brought by the wife of Martin 
Harris to protect her husband’s property from 
Smith, one witness testified that Joe told him that 

* Kennedy, Early Days, p. 46. 


“Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism, p. 31, quoted by 
Linn, Story, pp. 26-27. 


THE GOLDEN BIBLE: ITS ORIGIN 61 


“the box which he had contained nothing but sand,” 
another witness swore that Joe told him that “it 
was nothing but a box of lead,” and a third witness 
declared that Joe told him that “there was nothing 
at all in the box.” Daniel Hendrix, one of the 
proof-readers of the book, also said: “I distinctly 
remember his sitting on some boxes in the store 
and telling a knot of men, who did not believe a word 
they heard, all about his vision and his find. But 
Joe went into such minute and careful details about 
the size, weight, and beauty of the carvings on the 
golden tablets, that I confess he made some of the 
smartest men in Palmyra rub their eyes in 
wonder.” ** 

We reserve for later consideration the testimony 
of the official witnesses to the plates. But the evi- 
dence already adduced conclusively proves that the 
story of the finding of the golden plates is untrue 
and was wholly invented. It is not only wildly im- 
probable and utterly incredible on its face, but it was 
told by the Smiths in general and by Joe in particu- 
lar in various contradictory versions, and it is abso- 
lutely riddled and destroyed by the testimony of a 
number of trustworthy acquaintances of Joe to 
whom he confessed that by his story he had “fixed” 
“the fools,” and that ‘“‘there never was such a book.” 
Isaac Hale, the honest father-in-law of this “ro- 
mancer of the first water,” who had inside and in- 
timate knowledge of his crooked ways, told the sim- 


* Linn, Story, p. 27. 


62 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


ple truth when he declared, ‘“The whole Book of 
Mormon is a silly fabrication of falsehood and wick- 
edness, got up for speculation.” 


3. TRANSLATING THE PLATES 


Smith, having’ conceived the idea of making 
money out of a book, now set about carrying it out, 
and to do this he had to make a pretence of trans- 
lating the alleged plates and to get money to pay 
for printing the book. He found a financial pro- 
moter in the person of Martin Harris, a farmer 
of the neighborhood, whom he induced to believe 
in the supernatural discovery. Harris placed a 
mortgage on his farm to finance the enterprise, hav- 
ing been fooled into believing that there were “mil- 
lions in it,” although he was stoutly opposed in this 
move by his wife, who brought suit to prevent the 
transaction and finally separated from him on ac- 
count of his being seduced, as she believed, into the 
swindle. 

To escape persecution, as he alleged, in New York, 
taking Harris and his wife Emma with him, Smith 
went to Harmony, Pa., to begin the work of trans- 
lation. “Immediately after my arrival,” he says, “I 
commenced copying the characters off the plates. I 
copied a considerable number of them, and by means 
of the Urim and Thummim I translated some of 
them, which I did between the time I arrived at my 


THE GOLDEN BIBLE: ITS ORIGIN 63 


wife’s father’s house in the month of December 
(1827) and the February following.” 

Smith pretended that the plates were written in 
strange characters which he said were mostly “re- 
formed Egyptian” and his manner of translating 
was to sit behind a curtain and read off the trans- 
lation of the characters by means of the “peek- 
stone,” or, as he sometimes said, by the “Urim and 
Thummim” which he found with the plates. 

Isaac Hale, in his statement from which we have 
already quoted, gives his account of how the busi- 
ness was carried on, as follows: 


About this time Martin Harris made his appearance 
upon the stage, and Smith began to interpret the charac- 
ters, or hieroglyphics, which he said were engraven upon 
the plates, while Harris wrote down the interpretation. 


It was said that Harris wrote down 116 pages and lost’ 


them. 


We interrupt Hale’s statement at this point to 
say that after 116 pages had been translated, Harris 
insisted on being allowed to take them to New York 
State to show them to his friends and that Smith, 
after much protestation and solemnly binding Har- 
ris to return them, permitted him to do so. But 
Harris’s wife made way with them, one tradition 
saying that she burnt them. For fear that if he 
were to reproduce these pages a discrepancy from 
his first translation would be discovered and used 
against him, Smith received a convenient “revela- 
tion” not to retranslate these plates, and so ended 


64 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


this episode. We resume the statement of Hale, 
Smith’s father-in-law: 


Soon after this happened, Martin Harris informed me 
that he must have a greater witness, and said that he had 
talked with Joseph about it. Joseph informed him that 
he could not, or durst not, show him the plates, but that 
he (Joseph) would go into the woods where the book of 
plates was, and that after he came back Harris should 
follow his track in the snow, and find the book and ex- 
amine it for himself. Harris informed me that he fol- 
lowed Smith’s directions, and could not find the plates and 
was still dissatisfied. The next day after this happened 
I went to the house where Joseph Smith, Jr., lived, and 
where he and Harris were engaged in their translation of 
the book. Each of them had a written piece of paper 
which they were comparing, and some of the words were, 
“my servant seeketh a greater witness, but no greater wit- 
ness shall be given him.” ... I inquired whose words 
they were, and was informed by Joseph or Emma (I 
rather think it was the former), that they were the words 
of Jesus Christ. I told them that I considered the whole 
of it a delusion, and advised them to abandon it. The 
manner in which he pretended to read and interpret was 
the same as when he looked for the money-diggers, with 
the stone in his hat and his hat over his face, while the 
book of plates was at the same time hid in the woods.** 


{ 

Harris continued to pester Smith for some surer 
witness as to the reality and genuineness of the 
plates and at last persuaded Smith to furnish him 
with a facsimile copy of some of the characters and 
let him take them to Professor Charles Anthon, a 
noted Greek scholar in New York City. The scrap 


* Kennedy, Early Days, pp. 40-41. 





JOSEPH SMITH, JR. 


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THE GOLDEN BIBLE: ITS ORIGIN 65 


of paper with Smith’s alleged ‘““Caractors” on it were 
shown to Professor Anthon and there are two ac- 
counts of what he said. Smith’s account is that he 
said “that they were Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, 
and Arabic,” and that he gave Harris a certificate 
“certifying to the people of Palmyra that they were 
true characters, and that the translation of such of 
them as had been translated was also correct.” Un- 
fortunately, however, according to Smith, when the 
professor learned from Harris how the place of 
the plates had been revealed by an angel, “he took it 
(his certificate) and tore it to pieces, saying that 
there was no such thing as ministering angels.” 
Professor Anthon himself in a letter to E. D. 
Howe, author of Mormonism Unveiled, under date 
of February 17, 1834, declared that “the whole 
story about my pronouncing the Mormon inscription 
to be ‘reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics’ is perfectly 
false,”’ and proceeded to tell how he had been visited 
by “a plain, apparently simple-minded farmer” with 
a paper which “was in fact a singular scrawl,” and 
how he had warned him of the ‘“‘roguery” that had 
been practiced upon him.”® 
*Facsimiles of this “scrawl” containing Smith’s “Caractors” are 
given by Riley and Linn. In 1843 announcement was made of the 
discovery in a mound near Kinderhook, IIl., of six plates “completely 
covered with characters that none as yet have been able to read,” 
and this find was exploited by the Mormons as supporting Smith’s 
discovery. But in 1879 one of the three men that perpetrated the 
hoax made an affidavit that the find was “a humbug,” and the “Kin- 


derhook Plates” went into a museum of curiosities along with the 
“Cardiff Giant.” 


66 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


Harris’s own account of how the translating was 
done was as follows: 


By aid of the seer stone (no mention of the magic 
spectacles) sentences would appear and were read by the 
prophet and written by Martin, and, when finished, he 
would say ‘“‘written’”; and if correctly written, that sen- 
tence would disappear, and another appear in its place; 
but if not written correctly, it remained until corrected, 
so that the translation was just as it was engraven on the 
plates, precisely in the language then used.*® 


Harris’s misfortune in losing the first 116 pages 
caused much trouble. When Smith heard of the loss 
he was thrown into as great consternation as was 
Carlyle when he learned that a servant girl had 
burnt the manuscript of the first volume of his 
French Revolution. Smith cried out, “O my God, 
all is lost,” Harris lost his job and, according to 
Mother Smith, “a dense fog spread itself over his 
fields and blighted his wheat.” ** The work of 
translating was suspended for ten months, and a 
preface was published in the first edition of the 
book in which Smith explained that some person or 
persons had stolen these pages and he was “com- 
manded of the Lord that I should not translate them 
over again, for Satan had put it into their hearts to 
tempt the Lord their God, by altering the words.” 

The translation was suspended in July, 1828, and 
resumed on April 15, 1829. Smith’s wife Emma 


*Linn, Story, p 
a Biographical Sor of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, p. 145. 


THE GOLDEN BIBLE: ITS ORIGIN 67 


acted as scribe for a short time, and then Oliver 
Cowdery appears upon the scene and henceforth 
plays an important part in this story. He was a 
blacksmith, who gave up his trade to teach school 
in the district in which the Smiths lived, and boarded 
with them. Cowdery was caught in the coils of the 
superstitious Smiths, and became Joe’s scribe, first 
in Pennsylvania, and then at the home of Peter 
Whitmer at Fayette, Seneca County, N. Y., where 
the work was carried on until the work was ready 
for the printer in June, 1829. 


4. THE PRINTING AND THE EDITIONS OF THE BOOK 


Much trouble was experienced in finding a pub- 
_lisher for the strange book. FE. B. Grandin, pub- 
lisher of the Wayne Sentinel at Palmyra, was asked 
by Harris to give an estimate on 3,000 copies, but 
answered that he did not want the job and tried to 
persuade Harris, who, now that his money was 
needed, had been restored to grace with the Smiths, 
not to invest his money in the scheme, assuring him 
that it was fraudulent. Application was next made 
to Thurlow Weed, publisher of the Anti-Masonic 
Inquirer at Rochester, N. Y., who said: “After 
reading a few chapters, it seemed such a jumble of 
unintelligent absurdities that we refused the work, 
advising Harris not to mortgage his farm and beg- 
gar his family.”” A definite bid was finally obtained 
from a Rochester publisher, and then Smith and his 


68 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


associates went to Grandin and said to him that as 
the book would be published anyway it would be 
better for him to do the work. He agreed to 
print 5,000 copies for $3,000, and Harris gave a 
mortgage on his farm as security. It was then 
that Harris’s wife brought a charge against Smith 
on the ground of securing money from her husband 
on fraudulent representation, and Harris denied at 
the hearing that he had ever contributed a dollar to 
Smith at the latter’s persuasion. His wife, how- 
ever, secured a separation from Harris, with a divi- 
sion of the property.*® 

We have interesting light upon the book as it was 
passing through the printing office. Daniel Hen- 
drix says: 

I helped to read proof on many pages of the book, and 
at odd times set some type. ... The penmanship of 
the copy furnished was good, but the grammar, spelling 
and punctuation were done by John H. Gilbert, who was 
chief compositor in the office. I have heard him swear 
many a time at the syntax and orthography of Cowdery, 
and declare that he would not set another line of the type. 
There were no paragraphs, no punctuation and no capitals. 
All that was done in the printing office, and what a time 
there used to be in straightening sentences out. During 


the printing of the book I remember that Joe Smith kept 
in the background.}® 


As the work of typesetting progressed the printer 
demanded partial payments, and when Harris was 


* Linn, Story, p. 47. 

* Quoted by Linn, who gives similar testimony from Albert Chan- 
dler, who was an apprentice in the same printing office at the time. 
Story, pp. 48-49. 


THE GOLDEN BIBLE: ITS ORIGIN 69 


slow in furnishing the money Smith produced a 
special “revelation,” which declared, “I command 
thee that thou shalt not covet thine own property, 
but impart it freely to the printing of the Book of 
Mormon.’ ‘This brought Harris’s share of the 
farm into the market, and the money was paid. The 
book appeared in 1830 and was sold at first at $1.25 
a volume. This price for the whole edition would 
yield, it was calculated, a profit of over three thou- 
sand dollars, but paper profits are not always 
realized, and as the book fell flat on the market the 
price went down until Smith, Sr., offered seven vol- 
umes in payment of a debt of $5.63, and the creditor 
was glad to get even that much. 

It was soon discovered that the book was full of 
errors. Smith’s ignorance cropped out on almost 
every page. David Whitmer in an interview in his 
later years declared: ‘So illiterate was Joseph at 
that time that he didn’t know that Jerusalem was a 
walled city, and he was utterly unable to pronounce 
many of the names that the magic power of the 
Urim and Thummim revealed.” The book passed 
into a fluid condition and assumed a different form 
with every edition. In 1842 an edition appeared 
bearing on its title page the announcement, “Care- 
fully revised by the translator,” and such corrections 
have continued and accumulated so that ‘a compari- 
son of the latest Salt Lake edition with the first has 
shown more than three thousand changes.” 


70 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


5. THE WITNESSES TO THE PLATES 


When the Book of Mormon appeared it bore on 
its title page, as it contains to this day, the following 


The Testimony of Three Witnesses 


Be it known unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and 
people unto whom this work shall come, that we through 
the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, 
have seen the plates which contain this record, which is 
a record of the people of Nephi, and also the Lamanites, 
their brethren, and also the people of Jared, who came 
from the tower of which hath been spoken; and we also 
know that they have been translated by the gift and power 
of God, and not of man. And we declare with words 
of soberness, that an angel of God came down from 
heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that we 
beheld and saw the plates, and the engravings thereon; 
and we know that it is by the grace of God the Father, 
and our Lord Jesus Christ, that we beheld and record that 
these things are true; and it is marvelous in our eyes, 
nevertheless the voice of the Lord commanded us that 
we should bear record of it; wherefore, to be obedient unto 
the commandments of God, we bear testimony to these 
things. And we know that if we are faithful in Christ, | 
we shall rid our garments of the blood of all men, and 
be found spotless before the judgment-seat of Christ, and 
shall dwell with him eternally in the heavens. And the 
honor be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy 
Ghost, which is one God. Amen. 

Oliver Cowdery. 
David Whitmer. 
Martin Harris. 


This testimony may look impressive, until we 
scrutinize it more closely and look through it and 


THE GOLDEN BIBLE: ITS ORIGIN 71 


behind it. It is not an affidavit and is not dated. 
It reads just like one of Smith’s “revelations” and is 
only another version of the “Revelation given 
through Joseph, the Seer, to Oliver Cowdery, David 
Whitmer, and Martin Harris, in Fayette, Seneca 
County, New York, June, 1829, given previous to 
their viewing the plates containing the Book of Mor- 
mon.’ *° It plainly came from the same hand; 
Smith wrote this “Testimony” himself. This ‘“Reve- 
lation” tells these three “witnesses” that “after you 
have obtained faith, and have seen them with your 
eyes, you shall testify of them, by the power of 
God,” and then “ye shall testify that you have seen 
them”: the jury has been coached and told just what 
they shall say before they hear the case; Joe put the 
very words into the mouths of these witnesses and 
copartners in the swindle a year before they signed 
the “testimony.” And why was it necessary to have 
“faith” in order to see plates with their eyes? And 
if they saw them, why was it necessary to testify to 
them “by the power of God’? 

Smith’s own account of how these men saw the 
plates when he took them out into the woods and the 
plates were supernaturally manifested to them ”* is 
another wild and utterly improbable story of this 
“romancer of the first water.” Besides, all these 
witnesses, Cowdery, Whitmer and Harris, as well 
as Smith himself, have been proved by abundant 


™” Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 17. 
“Linn, Story, pp. 79-80, ‘quoted from Millennial Star, Vol, XIV. 


72 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


testimony to be a set of swindlers and liars, out to 
make money. The Mormons themselves offer this 
proof. Out in Missouri two of these precious wit- 
nesses, Cowdery and Whitmer, were warned to leave 
in a paper signed by eighty Mormons, in which they 
were charged with being thieves. 


Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and Lyman E. 
Johnson united with a gang of counterfeiters, thieves, 
liars and blacklegs of the deepest dye, to deceive, cheat 
and defraud the Saints out of their property, by every 
art and stratagem which wickedness could invent; using 
the influence of the vilest persecutions to bring vexatious 
lawsuits, villainous prosecutions, and even stealing not 
excepted.?” 


After thus destroying the character of these men, 
an attempt was made to save some shred of the 
value of their testimony by adding, with brazen ef- 
frontery, the following claim: 


We wish to remind you that Oliver Cowdery and 
David Whitmer were among the principal of those who 
were the means of gathering us to this place by their 
testimony which they gave concerning the plates of the 
Book of Mormon that they were shown to them by an 
angel; which testimony we believe now as much as before 
you had so scandalously disgraced us! 


As for Harris, he confessed, when pressed by a 
lawyer in Palmyra as to whether he had seen the 
plates with his natural eyes: ‘“Why, I did not see 
them as I do that pencil case, yet I saw them with 


™Linn, Story, p. 81. 


* 


THE GOLDEN BIBLE: ITS ORIGIN 73 


the eye of faith. I saw them just as distinctly as I 
see anything around me—though at the time they 
were covered over witha cloth.” And Smith himself 
blackened the character of Harris in one of his own 
publications, the Elders’ Journal, July, 1837, by ap- 
plying to him the following elegant language: 


There are negroes who have white skins as well as 
black ones, granny Parish, and others who acted as 
lackeys, such as Martin Harris. But they are so far 
beneath my contempt, that to notice any of them would 
be too great a sacrifice for a gentleman to make. 


And now, to cap the climax, every one of these 
three witnesses became an apostate to the Mormon 
faith and church. Cowdery, after he was driven 
_ out by the Mormons, went to Tiffin, Ohio, where he 
practiced law, renounced his Mormon views, joined 
the Methodist church and became superintendent 
of the Sunday school. Afterwards, however, he 
returned to the Mormons and asked to be rebaptized 
into the church as a member. Whitmer continued 
to affirm his belief in the Mormon Bible, but he re- 
nounced the Mormon church after its adoption of 
polygamy and started a church of his own, which 
he called “The Church of Christ.” Harris, after 
he was driven out from the Mormons, first joined 
the Shakers and then went to England as a mis- 
sionary of a sect of Mormons that split off from the 
main body; while there he was branded by the 
Millennial Star, the official organ of the Mormon 


74 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


church, as that “wicked man” who is referred to on 
“the 178th page of the Book of Doctrine and Cove- 
nants.’ He, also, returned to the Mormon church 
and was rebaptized. 

By this time Joe’s Bible business is plainly in a 
very bad way. It is thoroughly discredited. He 
has discredited his own witnesses, and his own wit- 
nesses have discredited themselves. They tell con- 
tradictory stories about the plates, and the Mormons 
themselves brand them as swindlers and liars. To 
crown all, the three witnesses all became apostates 
and renegades from the faith which they helped to 
foist upon the world; and it matters not that they re- 
turned and were rebaptized into it; their trust- 
worthiness has been destroyed. 

The same fly-leaf that bears “The Testimony of 
the Three Witnesses” also carries this: “And also 
the Testimony of the Eight Witnesses.” This is a 
briefer statement reaffirming the first testimony and 
containing this additional item that “we have seen 
and hefted, and know of a surety, that the said 
Smith has got the plates of which we have spoken.” 
But what was it that they “hefted’? Very likely 
Joe showed them a box or something, but possibly 
it was “‘covered over with a cloth,” as Martin Harris 
said it was when he saw the plates ‘“‘with the eye 
of faith,” or it may have contained some of that 
“beautiful white sand” which Joe told the family 
he had found and with which he said he had “got 
the fools fixed,” or that brick—not a ‘gold brick” 


THE GOLDEN BIBLE: ITS ORIGIN 75 


but just “a large tile brick” —which the two young 
men saw when they jerked the cover off ‘‘the critter.” 

And who are the ‘eight witnesses” to this second 
“testimony” that is brought forth to bolster up the 
first? Four of them are Whitmers, of the same 
family with David who signed the first testimony, 
three of them are Smiths, Joseph Smith, Sr., and 
Hyrum and Samuel, father and brothers of Joe, 
and all the Smiths are tarred with the same stick, 
“particularly famous for visionary projects” and 
“destitute of that moral character which ought to 
entitle them to the confidence of the community” ; 
and the other member of this group of witnesses 
was Hiram Page, a root doctor and son-in-law of 
Peter Whitmer, who used a “‘peek-stone” to receive 
“revelations” of his own, a rivalry which the 
Prophet Joe could not tolerate and therefore he 
branded Page as one deceived by the devil: “Tell him 
that those things which he hath written from the 
stone are not of me, and that Satan deceiveth 
rma t 

And so the second group of “witnesses” goes into 

.the same class of “liars” along with the first and 
only adds another burden which the unfortunate 
“plates” must carry. 

Did all or any of these ‘“‘witnesses” really see any- 
thing? There is no positive answer to this question, 
for Joe may have showed them something; but very 
likely he did not and did not need to show them any- 


* Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 28. 


76 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


thing, for all the Smiths and nearly all if not all 
of these witnesses knew that the whole business was 
a money-making scheme and fake. And did Joe 
have any ‘plates’? There is no probability that he 
had; he may have had some “white sand” or a “‘tile 
brick” in a box, but he had no plates “curiously en- 
graved” in “reformed Egyptian” or any other kind 
of “Egyptian,” “Hebrew,” “Greek,” “Mexican,” or 
any other language. The “singular scrawl” on the 
piece of paper which Joe gave to Martin Harris to 
take to Professor Anthon contained “all kinds of 
crooked characters” which Joe or some one else may 
have copied in part from “a book containing various 
alphabets,” as the professor said, but they were 
meaningless and simply the production of “these 
wretched fanatics,” to use again the professor’s lan- 
guage. The plates are an invention and deception, 
the witnesses are untrustworthy and not to be be- 
lieved, and the “Golden Bible’ is a myth and a 
fraud. 


6. JOSEPH SMITH AS AN “EGYPTIAN” TRANSLATOR 


There is one crucial instance which occurred sev- 
eral years later, in which the trustworthiness of 
Joseph Smith in his “claim to be an inspired trans- 
lator” has been subjected to a decisive test and he 
has been proved to be a brazen pretender. In 1833 
one Michael H. Chandler, a traveling showman, ap- 
peared in Kirtland, Ohio, with some Egyptian mum- 


THE GOLDEN BIBLE: ITS ORIGIN 77 


mies and other curiosities. Smith was interested, 
as his “gold plates” were alleged to be written in 
“reformed Egyptian,’ and when he was shown 
some rolls of papyri he at once announced, ‘““We have 
found that one of these rolls contained the writings 
of Abraham, another the writings of Joseph.” The 
showman found in Smith a ready purchaser of the 
papyri, and he proceeded to translate the “Book of 
Abraham,” entitling it ‘““A translation of some an- 
cient records, that have fallen into our hands, from 
the catacombs of Egypt; the writings of Abraham 
while he was in Egypt, called the Book of Abraham, 
written by his own hand, upon papyrus.” This was 
published in 1842 in Times and Seasons and later 
was incorporated in the Pearl of Great Price,** 
where it remains to this day as one of the inspired 
books of Mormonism. ‘The translation, extending 
to twenty-three pages, is a meaningless confusion 
of words and ideas and should have deceived no one 
of ordinary intelligence. 

The Egyptian hieroglyphics had not been fully 
deciphered in 1833 and Smith was safe from detec- 
tion in his imposture at that time. This unlocking 
of the Egyptian language was accomplished later 
and then pitiless exposure and doom swiftly fell 
upon Smith. In 1861 Smith’s translation was 
shown to Theodule Deveria, a scholar connected 


“The Pearl of Great Price, A Selection from the Revelations, 
Translations, and Narrations of Joseph Smith. Salt Lake City: 
The Deseret News, 1913. 


78 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


with the Museum of the Louvre in Paris, and was 
declared by him “‘to be entirely incorrect.” 

The complete exposure of the fraud, however, 
was effected in 1912 by the Rt. Rev. F. S. Spalding, 
the Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Utah. He sub- 
mitted the “Book of Abraham’ to eight distin- 
guished scholars learned in Egyptian lore and 
published their answers, a few brief extracts from 
which are here given.?> Dr. A. H. Sayce, Oxford, 
England: “It is difficult to deal seriously with Joseph 
Smith’s impudent fraud. ... The hieroglyphics 
have been transformed into unintelligible lines. 
Hardly one of them has been copied correctly.” 
Smith published with his “translation” crude re- 
productions of the drawings and hieroglyphics of 
the papyri. James H. Breasted, University of Chi- 
cago: “Joseph Smith’s interpretation of them as 
part of a unique revelation through Abraham very 
clearly demonstrates that he was totally un- 
acquainted with the significance of these documents 
and absolutely ignorant of the simplest facts of 
Egyptian writing and civilization.’ W. M. Flin- 
ders Petrie, London University : “None but the igno- 
rant could possibly be imposed on by such ludicrous 
blunders.” Dr. John Peters, University of Penn- 
sylvania: “The text of this chapter, as also the in- 
terpretation of the plates, displays an amusing ig- 


“Joseph Smith, Jr., as a Translator. An Inquiry Conducted by 
Rt. Rev. F. S. Spalding, D.D., with the Kind Assistance of Capable 
Scholars. Salt Lake City, Arrow Press, 1912. 


THE GOLDEN BIBLE: ITS ORIGIN 79 


norance.” Dr. Edward Meyer, University of 
Berlin: “The Egyptian papyrus, which Smith de- 
clared to be the ‘Book of Abraham,’ and ‘translated’ 
or explained in his fantastical way, and of which 
three specimens are published in the Pearl of Great 
Price, are parts of the well- known ‘Book of the 
Dead.’” Dr. Friedrich von Bissing, University of 
Munich: “I hope this will suffice to show that Joseph 
Smith certainly never got a divine revelation in the 
meaning of the ancient Egyptian script, and that he 
never deciphered hieroglyphic texts at all.” 
Professor Orson Pratt, a Mormon authority, de- 
clared of the Book of Mormon that “if false, it is 
one of the most cunning, wicked, bold, deep-laid 
impositions ever palmed upon the world, calculated 
to deceive and ruin millions who would sincerely 
receive it as the word of God.” *° In the light of 
the above exposure, which has never been refuted 
or denied by Mormons, and in the light of the fact 
that they still publish the “Book of Abraham” as 
part of their Prophet’s writings, Orson Pratt’s char- 
acterization of the Book of Mormon is correct. 


7. WHO WROTE THE BOOK OF MORMON? 


Did Joseph Smith, whom even his father called 
“Glliterate,” write this book unaided? Much con- 
troversy has raged around this question. Some 


*Quoted from Pratt’s Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mor- 
mon by Spalding, p. Io. 


80 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


competent students of the book, such as Professor 
I. W. Riley,?” do not think it is beyond the capacity 
of Smith to produce. He undoubtedly had consid- 
erable mental ability, especially an absorbent mind, 
retentive memory and fertile imagination, and the 
contents of the book are made up of the general 
ideas that were floating around in his day. This 
point will come up in the next chapter. 

Nevertheless, it is surprising that this man should 
have produced this book without some assistance, 
_and at this point arises the Spaulding-Rigdon theory 
of its origin. The facts in the case are very com- 
plicated, and we must condense the story into brief 
space.”® 

Solomon Spaulding was born in Connecticut in 
1701, graduated from Dartmouth College in 1785, 
entered the Congregational ministry and after sev- 
eral years relinquished it and engaged in mercantile 
business in Cherry Valley, N. Y., and in 1809 re- 
moved to Conneaut, Ohio, where he was a partner in 
building an iron forge, a venture which proved un- 
successful. While residing in Conneaut he became 
interested in the Indian mounds in the vicinity and 


" The Founder of Mormonism, pp. 369-305. 

*E. D. Howe in his Mormonism Unveiled (1834) first investi- 
gated this question and collected the testimony of many witnesses 
establishing the practical identity of the story of the Book of Mor- 
mon with Spaulding’s romance. Robert Patterson in his Who Wrote 
the Book of Mormon? (1882) strengthened the case by connecting 
Rigdon with the Spaulding manuscript in Pittsburgh; and Charles 
A. Shook in his True Origin of the Book of Mormon (1914) still 
further strengthened the case by connecting Rigdon with Smith 
before 1830. ' 


THE GOLDEN BIBLE: ITS ORIGIN 81 


wrote a romance purporting to give an account of 
early Indian history, calling the story the “Manu- 
script Found,” as it had been unearthed, according 
to the fiction he invented, in one of the Indian 
mounds. He was in the habit of reading this manu- 
script to his neighbors until it became a well-known 
story, “familiar as household words.” In 1812 he 
removed to Pittsburgh to see if he could get his book 
published. Failing in this he moved in 1814 to 
Amity, Washington County, Pa., where he died in 
1816 and was buried in the village graveyard. The - 
author has visited his grave and seen the broken 
fragments of his tombstone.”® 

When the Book of Mormon appeared in 1830, 
many people at once recognized it as being largely 
the same as Spaulding’s “Manuscript Found.” Mr. 
Howe *° in 1833 collected the testimonies of eight 
witnesses on this point, to which Mr. Patterson 
adds the testimonies of nine more. We can here 
transcribe only two or three of these testimonies. 

John Spaulding, a brother of Solomon, who vis- 
ited the latter at Conneaut just before his removal, 
stated: 


He then told me he had been writing a book, which 
he intended to have printed, the avails of which he thought 
would enable him to pay all his debts. The book was 


*In August, 1906, the fragments were replaced by a granite mon- 
ument which was paid for by popular local subscription. It bears 
the original inscription: “In Memory of Solomon Spaulding Who 
Departed This Life October 20, A. D. 1816. Aged 55 Years,” and 
also a stanza of a hymn. 

*° Mormonism Unveiled, pp. 278-287. 


82 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


entitled the “Manuscript Found,” of which he read to me 
many passages. It was an historical romance of the first 
settlers of America, endeavoring to show that the Ameri- 
can Indians are the descendants of the Jews, or the lost 
tribes. It gave a detailed account of their journey from 
Jerusaleni, by land and sea, until they arrived in America, 
under the command of Nephi and Lehi. They after- 
ward had quarrels and contentions, and separated into 
two distinct nations, one of which he denominated Ne- 
phites and the other Lamanites. Cruel and bloody wars 
ensued, in which great multitudes were slain. They 
buried their dead in large heaps, which caused the mounds 
so common in this country. ... I have recently read 
the Book of Mormon, and, to my great surprise, I find 
nearly the same historical matter, names, etc., as they 
were in my brother’s writings. I well remember that he 
wrote in the old style, and commenced about every sen- 
tence with “And it came to pass,” or, “Now it came to 
pass,” the same as in the Book of Mormon, and according 
to the best of my recollection and belief, it is the same as — 
my brother Solomon wrote, with the exception of the 
religious matter. 


Henry Lake, the partner of Spaulding in building 
the forge, testified: 


He very frequently read to me from a manuscript which 
he was writing, which he entitled the ‘Manuscript 
Found,” and which he represented as being found in this 
town. I spent many hours in hearing him read said writ- 
ings, and became well acquainted with their contents... . 
One time when he was reading to me a tragic account of 
Laban I pointed out to him what I considered an in- 
consistency, which he promised to correct; but by refer- 
ring to the Book of Mormon I find, to my surprise, that it 
stands there just as he read it to me then. . . . Since that 
I have more fully examined the said Golden Bible, and 
have no hesitation in saying that the historical part of 


THE. GOLDEN BIBLE: ITS ORIGIN 83 


it is principally if not wholly taken from the “Manuscript 
Found.” I well recollect telling Mr. Spaulding that the 
so frequent use of the words, ‘And it came to pass,” 
“Now it came to pass,” rendered it ridiculous. 


Similar testimony is given by Mrs. Martha Spaul- 
ding, wife of John Spaulding, Mrs. Matilda Spaul- 
ding Davison, widow of Solomon Spaulding who 
was married to Mr. Davison in 1820, Mrs. S. M. 
McKinstry, daughter of Solomon Spaulding, and by 
John N. Miller, Aaron Wright, Oliver Smith, Na- 
hum Howard, neighbors of Solomon Spaulding, 
and a number of others, all of whom were familiar 
with the “Manuscript Found” and declared that in 
its story of the American Indians as the descendants 
of the Jews who left Jerusalem and landed in Amer- 
ica and in its style it corresponds very closely with 
the historical narrative found in the Book of Mor- 
mon. Accumulative testimony makes it practically 
certain that the writer of the Book of Mormon had 
some kind of access to the “Manuscript Found.” 

The problem is to connect the two writings, and 
Sidney Rigdon is proved to be the link between them. 
He was born in the village of Library, Allegheny 
County, Pa., in 1793, had a country school educa- 
tion, became a Baptist preacher in 1819, became 
pastor of the First Baptist Church of Pittsburgh in 
January, 1822, and was excluded from the Baptist 
denomination for doctrinal errors in 1823; later he 
removed to the Western Reserve, Ohio, and became 
connected with the followers of Alexander Camp- 


84 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


bell or Disciples, and was converted to Mormonism 
in 1830. 

The theory at this point is that Spaulding left 
either his manuscript or a copy of it in the Pitts- 
burgh printing office of Robert Patterson, father 
of the author of Who Wrote the Book of Mormon? 
that Sidney Rigdon by some means obtained this 
copy and subsequently visited Joseph Smith in Pal- 
myra and assisted him in producing the Book of 
Mormon, incorporating into it Spaulding’s story 
of Indian history. 

The evidence for this is cumulative and reaches 
practical certainty. Let it be recorded, however, at 
once that Rigdon himself, in a letter addressed to the 
Boston Journal, dated at Commerce, afterwards 
known as Nauvoo, Ill., where he was a leader among 
the Mormons, under date of May 27, 1839, made 
the following positive denial: 


It is only necessary to say, in relation to the whole story 
about Spaulding’s writings being in the hands of Mr. 
Patterson, who was in Pittsburgh, and who is said to 
have kept a printing-office, and my saying that I was con- 
cerned in said office, etc., is the most base of lies, without 
even a shadow of truth. ... If I were to say that I 
ever heard of the Rev. Spaulding and his hopeful wife 
I should be a liar like unto themselves. 


Nevertheless Robert Patterson, in his book, pro- 
duces half a dozen or more witnesses who were able 
to connect Rigdon with the Spaulding manuscript. 


THE GOLDEN BIBLE: ITS ORIGIN 85 


One of these was Joseph Miller, who lived at Amity 


and was a ruling elder in the Cumberland Presby- 
terian Church and was intimate with Rev. Solomon 
Spaulding when he lived in the same village. Mr. 
Miller testified as follows: 


My recollection is that Mr. Spaulding had left a tran- 
script of the manuscript with Mr. Patterson, of Pitts- 
burgh, Pa., for publication; that its publication was de- 
layed until Mr. Spaulding could write a preface, and in 
the meantime the manuscript was spirited away, and could 
not be found. Mr. Spaulding told me that Sidney Rigdon 
had taken it, or that he was suspicioned for it. Recollect 
distinctly that Rigdon’s name was used in connection with 
it. 


Rev. Cephas Dodd, M.D., who was the Presby- 
terian minister in Amity at the time Mr. Spaulding 
lived there, and was his physician, also testified that 
it was his positive belief that Rigdon was an agent 
in transforming Spaulding’s manuscript into the 
Book of Mormon. After the death of Spaulding he 
purchased a copy of the Book of Mormon and in- 
scribed on one of the fly-leaves the following: 


This work, I am convinced by facts related to me by 
my deceased patient, Solomon Spaulding, has been made 
from writings of Spaulding, probably by Sidney 
Rigdon, who was suspicioned by Spaulding with pur- 
loining his manuscript from the publishing house to which 
he had taken it; and I am prepared to testify that 
Spaulding told me that his work was entitled, “The 
Manuscript Found in the Wilds of Mormon; or Unearthed 
Records of the Nephites.” From his description of its 


86 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


contents, I fully believe that this Book of Mormon is 


mainly and wickedly copied from it. 
Cephas Dodd.*? 
June 6, 1831. 


Rev. John Winter, M.D., was an early minister 
of the Baptist church in Western Pennsylvania and 
was teaching a school in Pittsburgh at the time 
Sidney Rigdon was pastor of the First Baptist 
Church in that city. He testified that on one occa- 
sion when he was in Rigdon’s study the latter took 
from his desk a large manuscript and said in sub- 
stance: “A Presbyterian minister, Spaulding, whose 
health had failed, brought this to the printer to see 
if it would pay to publish it. It is a romance of 
the Bible.” 

Mrs. Mary Winter Irvine, a daughter of Rev. Dr. 
Winter, of Sharon, Pa., where she was a member of 
the First Presbyterian Church of that place when 
the present writer was pastor of it and knew her 
intimately, wrote under the date of April 5, 1881, 
as follows: 


I have frequently heard my father speak of Rigdon 
having Spaulding’s manuscript, and that he had gotten it 
from the printers to read it as a curiosity; as such he 
showed it to father; and that at that time Rigdon had no 
intention of making the use of it that he afterwards did; 
for father always said Rigdon helped Smith in his 
scheme by revising and making the Mormon Bible out of 
Rev. Mr. Spaulding’s manuscript. 


* Shook, True Origin of the Book of Mormon, p. 120. 


THE GOLDEN BIBLE: ITS ORIGIN 87 


The Rev. A. J. Bonsall, D.D., who is now (1925) 
the pastor of the Sandusky Street Baptist Church in 
Pittsburgh, and a step-son of Dr. Winter, author- 
izes the present writer to make the following state- 
ment: 


I have repeatedly heard my stepfather, Rev. Dr. John 
Winter, say that Sidney Rigdon had shown him the 
Spaulding manuscript romance, which purported to be 
the history of the American Indians, which manuscript 
Rigdon had received from the printers. 


Sufficient evidence has been adduced to connect 
Rigdon with the Spaulding manuscript in Pitts- 
burgh. Can Rigdon now be connected with Joseph 
Smith in the making of the Book of Mormon at 
Palmyra? The threads of connection at this point 
are also definite and strong. 

In the fall of 1830, after the appearance of the 
Book of Mormon, Rigdon was living at Mentor, 
Ohio, where he was engaged in farming. In No- 
vember of that year, four Mormon missionaries 
stopped at Mentor on their way to the West. “We 
called upon Elder S. Rigdon,” says Parley P. Pratt, 
one of the missionaries, “and then for the first time 
his eyes beheld the Book of Mormon. I, myself, had 
the happiness to present it to him in person. He was 
much surprised, and it was with much persuasion 
and argument that he was prevailed on to read it, 
and after he had read it, he had a great struggle of 
mind, before he fully believed and embraced it.” 


88 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


Forthwith he called together a congregation of his 
friends and professed the new religion and was bap- 
tized by Cowdery the next morning. Much is made 
by Mormon writers of this alleged conversion of 
Rigdon after the appearance of the Book of Mor- 
mon to prove that he could have had no connection 
with the making of that book; and they also contend 
that it can be shown by the records of his preaching 
engagements and weddings and funerals that his 
continuous presence in Ohio is proved, so that he 
could not have visited Smith at Palmyra in New 
York. 

Strong as this evidence looks, it is completely over- 
thrown by facts in the case. In the first place, there 
is conclusive testimony that Rigdon foretold the 
coming of just such a book at least three years be- 
fore the appearance of the Book of Mormon. Rev. 
Adamson Bentley, Rigdon’s brother-in-law, in a let- 
ter dated January 22, 1841, wrote: ‘I know that Sid- 
ney Rigdon told me that there was a book coming out 
(the manuscript of which had been engraved on 
gold plates) as much as two years before the Mor- 
mon book made its appearance in this country or 
had been heard of by me.” Darwin Atwater, an 
elder of the Disciples’ Church, in describing Rig- 
don’s preaching wrote: “Sidney Rigdon preached 
for us, and notwithstanding his extravagantly wild 
freaks, he was held in high repute by many... . 
That he knew before of the coming of the Book of 
Mormon is to me certain, from what he said during 


THE GOLDEN BIBLE: ITS ORIGIN 89 


the first of his visits at my father’s some years be- 
fore. He gave a wonderful description of the 
mounds and other antiquities found in some parts of 
America, and said that they must have been made by 
the Aborigines. He said there was to be a book 
published containing an account of those things.” 
Dr. S. Rosa, a leading physician of Ohio, also testi- 
fies that Rigdon told him before the appearance of 
the Book of Mormon that “it was time for a new 
religion to spring up,” and that “it would not be long 
before something would make its appearance.” *” 
There is even a hint in the Doctrine and Covenants 
(“Behold, thou wast sent forth even as John, to 
prepare the way before me,” Sec. 35) that Rigdon 
had some connection with Mormonism earlier than 
his professed conversion. 

In the next place, several neighbors of the Smiths 
in Palmyra testify that they had personal knowledge 
of visits of Rigdon with Smith before 1830. Mrs. 
Horace Eaton, for thirty-two years a resident of 
Palmyra, heard from the lips of acquaintances of 
the Smiths of the presence of a “mysterious 
stranger” with Joe Smith in the summer of 1827, 
who “was Sidney Rigdon, a back-sliding clergyman, 
at this time a Campbellite preacher in Mentor, 
Ohio.” Pomeroy Tucker, one of the proof-readers 
of Smith’s book, says that ‘“‘the reappearance of this 


™ These testimonies are given in detail by Shook, True Origin, 
pp. I2I-125. 


90 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


mysterious stranger at Smith’s at this juncture was 
again the subject of inquiry and conjecture by ob- 
servers,’ and that Rigdon’s “occasional visits to 
Smith’s had been observed by the inhabitants as 
those of the mysterious stranger.”’ Abel D. Chase, 
a neighbor of the Smiths, testified: “I was well ac- 
quainted with the Smith family. . . . During some 
of my visits at the Smiths, I saw a stranger there 
who they said was Mr. Rigdon. He was at Smith’s 
several times, and it was in the year 1827 when I 
first saw him there, as near as I can recollect.” 
Lorenzo Saunders, another “intimate acquaintance 
of the Smiths,” “saw Sidney Rigdon in the spring 
of 1827,” and again “in the fall of 1827,” and still 
again “in the summer of 1828.” °° 

Finally, the famous Mormon water-tight alibi for 
Rigdon, showing that he could not have been with 
Smith prior to 1830, is thoroughly riddled by Shook 
in a neat and masterly manner. He has tabulated 
all the records produced by Mormons showing the 
dates and engagements of Rigdon in Ohio and then 
pointed out that there are nine wide gaps of over a 
month each and that “three of these gaps occur in 
the year 1827, two in 1828, one in 1829 and three 
in 1830.” “By the facts that I have just given,” he 
concludes, “I believe that it is positively proved that 
Sidney Rigdon was in Palmyra, New York, at least 
four times before he openly became a Mormon: in 

* For full details see Shook, True Origin, pp. 129-132. 


THE GOLDEN BIBLE: ITS ORIGIN 91 


March, 1827; in September, 1827; in June, 1828, 
and in the winter of 1830.” *4 : 

There are other complications in this story, but 
they do not touch the main point. One of these is 
the fact that a manuscript was found in 1897 in the 
Sandwich Islands where it had been taken by L. L. 
Rice, the successor of E. D. Howe, to whom Mr. 
Howe sold his printing establishment at Painesville, 
Ohio. Mr. Howe had obtained the manuscript sev- 
eral years before from the widow of Solomon Spaul- 
ding. This manuscript, which was hailed by Mor- 
mons as disproving the Spaulding theory, is now 
in the Library of Oberlin College and is a genuine 
manuscript of Mr. Spaulding’s, but it is not the 
“Manuscript Found” and its discovery only shows 
that he wrote more than one story. Mr. Howe de- 
scribes this manuscript *° and never supposed it was 
the basis of the Book of Mormon.*® 

The essential facts have now been stated and they 
are sufficient to make it practically certain that the 
Rev. Solomon Spaulding’s manuscript of an Indian 
romance fell into the hands of Sidney Rigdon and 
by him was utilized in company with Joseph Smith 
in concocting the Bible of Mormonism. It stands 
proved that the Book of Mormon and Science and 
Health,** the two “Bibles” produced in America in 

* True Origin, pp. 136-151. 
* Mormonism Unveiled, p. 288. 


* For the facts of this case see Linn, Story, pp. 56-58. 
** See the author’s The Truth About Christian Science, Chapter V. 


92 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


the nineteenth century, were conceived in plagia- 
rism and brought forth in falsity. 

Mr. Linn sums up this complicated case in the 
following judicious conclusion: 


In a historical inquiry of this kind, it is more important 
to establish the fact that a certain thing was done than to 
prove just how or when it was done. The entire narra- 
tive of the steps leading up to the announcement of a 
new Bible, including Smith’s first introduction to the use 
of a “peek-stone” and his original employment of it, the 
changes made in the original version of the announcement 
to him of buried plates, and the final production of a 
book, partly historical and partly theological, shows that 
there was behind Smith some directing mind, and the only 
one of his associates in the first few years of the church’s 
history who could have done the work required was Sid- 
ney Rigdon.*® 


How little did Solomon Spaulding dream of the 
unhappy fate that would befall his innocent romance 
and of the unholy use to which it would be perverted 
and of the strange altar at which it would be made 
to serve! This is surely one of the bitterest ironies 
of history. The author was vividly impressed by 
this thought as he stood by his lonely grave. “The 
unconscious prophet of a new Islam,” says Mr. Pat- 
terson in concluding his book, “‘in all his imaginings 


* Story, p. 67. This proof was strengthened after the publication 
of Linn’s Haale by Shook who, as we have seen, discovered additional 
Rick connecting Rigdon with Smith. True Origin, pp. 136-151. 

R. Werner, in his recent book Brigham Young (1825), gives an 
pein and unsatisfactory account of the Spauldifig theory (pp. 
57-60) and says, “It was based on the testimony of neighbors and 
relatives of Solomon Spaulding given more than twenty years after 
the events of which they were said to be witnesses.” In the light 
of facts given above it is seen that this statement is incorrect. 


THE GOLDEN BIBLE: ITS ORIGIN 93 


he did not dream that his hand was outlining the 
Koran, of a dark delusion, that the fables which be- 
guiled his restless hours would be accepted by hun- 
dreds of thousands of his fellowmen as the oracles 
of God, and that in inglorious yet heroic martyr- 
dom some of them would even seal with their blood 
their faith in the inspiration of his phantasies. . . . 
Struggling to escape the burden of his debts, he little 
imagined how vast the burden he was unwittingly 
to lay upon his country.” 


CHAPTER LV 


THE BOOK OF MORMON: CONTENTS OF THE 
BOOK 


NY book speaks for itself. It is open to be 
read and known of all men and is its own best 
witness for or most damaging witness against itself. 
Higher criticism is the process by which we test a 
book as to its form and contents, consistency with 
itself and with its historical environment, truth and 
trustworthiness. It is hard for a book to conceal 
its real authorship and age, genuineness and authen- 
ticity; and if it is spurious in its alleged authorship 
and is a literary fraud, its sin is sure to find it out. 
If we were to read in a book that purported to have 
been written in the year 1400 A. D., that in that 
year a daring adventurer flew in an airship from 
England to America, we would know that the claim 
of the book as to the age of its authorship was false, 
for at that time there was no airship and the con- 
tinent of America was not known. The application 
of this principle plays havoc with the claims of many 
a book. This process of criticism has been applied 
to the Book of Mormon with destructive effect. The 
first writer to do this was the ex-Mormon John 
Hyde in his Mormonism (1857), and his two chap- 
94 


THE BOOK OF MORMON 95 


ters, IX-X, on the “Internal Evidences” and the 
“External Evidences” of the book are a masterly 
piece of critical work. Hyde is followed by Sten- 
house, another ex-Mormon, in his Rocky Mountain 
Saints (1873), Chapter XLVIII, who goes over the 
same ground with the same results. 


I. NAMES IN THE BOOK 


The book contains over five hundred names, such 
as Lehi, Nephi, Maroni and Mormon, and we in- 
quire as to their origin. They are in a way modeled 
after the general type of Biblical names, but they 
are also different. Who invented them? Solomon 
Spaulding. We have already seen that the prac- 
tical identity in their historical matter of Spaul- 
ding’s “Manuscript Found in the Wilds of Mormon”’ 
and Smith’s Book of Mormon has been established 
by many witnesses. This identity specially applies 
to the names in the two writings. John Spaulding, 
the brother of Solomon, in his statement says: “I 
find nearly the same names, etc.” Joe Smith ap- 
propriated Solomon Spaulding’s names out of his 
Indian romance. 

We have Smith’s own account, in the Times and 
Seasons, of the origin and meaning of the word 
“Mormon,” which is as follows: 


Before I give a definition of the word, let me say that 
the Bible, in its widest sense, means good; for the Saviour 
says, according to the Gospel of St. John, “I am the Good 


96 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


Shepherd” ; and it will not be beyond the common use of 
terms to say that good is amongst the most important 
in use, and, though known by various names in different 
languages, still its meaning is the same, and is ever in 
opposition to bad. We say from the Saxon, good; the 
Dane, god; the Goth, goda; the German, gut; the Dutch, 
goed; the Latin, bonus; the Greek, kalos; the Hebrew, 
tob; the Egyptian, mo. Hence, with the addition of more, 
or the contraction mor, we have the word Mormon, which 
literally means more good. 


The word “mormon” as given in the Century 
Dictionary is from the Greek popywr, meaning 
“bugbear,” and in zoology is the name of several 
animals, including a baboon. In the Book of Mor- 
mon it occurs in the Book of Mosiah XVIII, 4, and 
is the name of the place where Alma baptized those 
whom he led to repentance, and it next occurs in 
3 Nephi V, 20, where we read: “I am Mormon, 
and a pure descendant of Lehi.” The “Words of 
Mormon,” which is one of the divisions of the Book 
of Mormon, begins: “And now, I Mormon, being 
about to deliver up the record which I have been 
making, into the hands of my son Moroni, behold, 
I have witnessed almost all the destruction of my 
people, the Nephites.”* It is said that when the 
Mormons learned that the Greek word Mormon 
means a “bugbear,” they began to look on the name 

*It is a highly significant fact and an important link in the evidence 
connecting Smith’s book with Spaulding’s manuscript that the word 
Mormon as the name of a place and the word Nephites as the name 
of a people occur in the very title of Spaulding’s production, which 


is “Manuscript Found in the Wilds of Mormon; or Unearthed Rec- 
ords of the Nephites.” 


THE BOOK OF MORMON 97 


as a term of reproach and ridicule and have ever 
since objected to it, calling themselves “Saints.” 


2. GENERAL CONTENTS AND SOURCES OF THE BOOK 


The title-page of the first edition of this book 
reads: ““The Book of Mormon: an Account Written 
by the Hand of Mormon, upon Plates Taken from 
the Plates of Nephi.” Then followed a general 
statement as to the origin and contents of the book. 
“By Joseph Smith, Junior, Author and Proprietor.” 
For this latter statement the present editions substi- 
tute “Translated by Joseph Smith, Jun.” 

The Mormon claim for this book, as set forth in 
the Divine Authenticity, a book by Orson Pratt, an 
early Apostle and defender of the faith, is that “the 
witnesses of the Book of Mormon are not only equal 
in number, but superior in certainty to those which 
this generation have of Christ’s resurrection,” and 
that “this generation have more than one thousand 
times the amount of evidence to demonstrate and 
forever establish the divine authenticity of the Book 
of Mormon, than they have in favor of the Bible.” ? 
He further says that “the nature of the message in 
the Book of Mormon is such that, if true, none can 
be saved who reject it, and, if false, none can be 
saved who receive it.” The truth and value of this 
claim, on which we already have had some light, 
will further appear as we proceed. 

*Stenhouse, Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 525. 


98 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


We have read considerable portions of this book 
and found it hopelessly confusing and repetitious 
and dull and full of absurdities. We transcribe a few 
verses, for the book is divided into chapters and 
verses like the Bible, from 1 Nephi, Chapter VIII: 


1. And it came to pass that we had gathered together 
all manner of seeds of every kind, both of grain of every 
kind, and also seeds of fruit of every kind. 

2. And it came to pass that while my father tarried 
in the wilderness, he spake unto us, saying, Behold, I 
have dreamed a dream; or in other words, I have seen 
a vision. 

3. And behold, because of the thing which I have seen, 
I have reason to rejoice in the Lord, because of Nephi 
and also of Sam; for I have reason to suppose that they, 
and also many of their seed, will be saved. 

4. And behold, Laman and Lemuel, I fear exceedingly 
because of you; for behold, methought I saw in my 
dream, a dark and dreary wilderness. 

5. And it came to pass that I saw a man, and he was 
dressed in a white robe; and he came and stood before 
me. 

6. And it came to pass that he spake unto me, and 
bade me follow him. 


The volume of 623 pages (edition of 1918) is 
divided into fifteen books, which are named as fol- 
lows: “First Book of Nephi, His Reign and Min- 
istry,” seven chapters; “Second Book of Nephi,” 
fifteen chapters; “Book of Jacob, the Brother of 
Nephi,” five chapters; “Book of Enos,” one chapter ; 
“Words of Mormon,’ one chapter; “Book of 
Omni,” one chapter; “Book of Mosiah,” thirteen 
chapters; “Book of Alma, a Son of Alma,” thirty 


THE BOOK OF MORMON 99 


chapters; “Book of Helaman,” five chapters; “Third 
Book of Nephi, One of the Disciples of Jesus 
Christ,’ one chapter; “Book of Mormon,” four 
chapters; “Book of Esther,” six chapters; ‘Book 
of Moroni,” ten chapters. 

The following is Joseph Smith’s own summary of 
the contents of the book, as published in the Times 
and Seasons of March 1, 1842: 


The history of America is unfolded from its first settle- 
ment by a colony that came from the Tower of Babel 
at the confusion of languages, to the beginning of the 
5th Century of the Christian era. We are informed by 
these records that America in ancient times has been in- 
habited by two distinct races of people. The first were 
called Jaredites, and came directly from the Tower of 
Babel. The second race came directly from the city of 
Jerusalem about 600 years before Christ. They were 
principally Israelites of the descendants of Joseph. The 
Jaredites were destroyed about the time that the Israelites 
came from Jerusalem, who succeeded them in the in- 
habitance of the country. The principal nation of the 
second race fell in battle toward the close of the fourth 
century. The remnant are the Indians that now inhabit 
this country. 


There were three emigrations out of Asia: the 
first of the family of Jared from the Tower of Babel, 
whose descendants were wholly destroyed more than 
600 years B. C. The second of the family of Lehi 
from Jerusalem about 600 B. C., the righteous part 
of whose descendants were destroyed in a great bat- 
tle 400 A. D., the wicked part of these descendants 
being now the American Indians; and third, the 


100 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


“people of Zarahelma,” the Jews, who came from 
Jerusalem about eleven years after Lehi, and whose 
descendants were destroyed by the wars or mingled 
among those of Lehi. 

The history of the wanderings and wars of these 
families was engraved by their prophet on plates 
of brass and gold and “ore,” and religiously 
preserved until they came into the hands of 
Mormon, one of the descendants of Lehi. He 
made an abridgment of the history in 384 A.D., 
and, after burying the original plates, together 
with certain other curiosities, in a hill, gave 
the abridgment to his son Moroni, who added 
to it an abridgment of the history of the 
people of Jared and then boxed both up and buried 
them in the hill “Cumorah” in New York State in 
400 A. D. There, according to the Mormon story, 
on September 22, 1827, they were given by an angel 
to Joseph Smith, who “translated them by the gift 
and power of God.” The first 116 pages of the 
translation, as we have seen, were lost, and the trans- 
lation of the rest of the plates constitutes the present 
Book of Mormon. Hyde, however, enumerates 
twenty-four other plates and articles which, accord- 
ing to the book itself, were also buried at Cumorah 
and are yet awaiting to be exhumed.? 

We have already given the reasons for believing 
that the historical framework and matter of the 
book are principally taken from Spaulding’s “Manu- 


* Mormonism, pp. 213-14. 


THE BOOK OF MORMON 101 


script Found.” To this Indian “romance” has been 
added a large amount of Scriptural and other re- 
ligious matter. About one-eighteenth of the book 
is taken from the Bible, no credit being given for 
this in the earliest editions, but in the present edi- 
tion proper credit is given. The following chapters 
are taken bodily: Isaiah 2 to 14, 18, 19, 21, 48, 49, 
50, 51, 52, 54; Matt. 5, 6, 7; 1 Cor. 13. Besides 
these chapters, Hyde counted, from page 2 to page 
428, 298 direct quotations from the New Testament, 
some of them paragraphs and others sentences. In 
addition to these literal quotations there are numer- 
ous and extensive adaptations: a long imitation of 
the chapter in Hebrews on faith, new variations of 
the woes against the Pharisees, and “twenty-six 
pages of the supposititious sayings and doings of the 
Lord in his Advent in America.” Finally there are 
numerous transformations of Scriptural matter; 
“for example, the parable of the dying olive tree is 
grafted on the metaphor of the wild olive tree and 
the whole, with its ramifications, spreads over nine 
pages.” All this Biblical matter, including many 
chapters of literal quotations from the Authorized 
_ Version, is represented to have been translated from 
the “reformed Egyptian” on the plates. 

Much of the original matter contained in the book 
can be traced to the religious controversies of the 
day and some of it is more or less autobiographical. 
The following passage with which the Book of 
Mormon opens is an instance: 


102 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, therefore 
I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father ; 
and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days 
—nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in 
all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the 
goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a 
record of my proceedings in my days. 


The name of this prophet is given as Nephi, but 
the acts are the acts of Joseph. The dream of Lehi, 
recorded on pages 15-16, when compared with the 
dream of Joseph Smith, Sr., as recorded in Mrs. 
Smith’s Biographical Sketches, pages 58-59, is seen 
to be closely parallel. 

Much of the knowledge relating to the American 
Indians was such as was familiar to Joe in his boy- 
hood, to whom Indians were a common sight. In 
his mother’s biographical book we read this passage: 


During our evening conversations, Joseph would oc- 
casionally give us some of the most amusing recitals that 
could be imagined. He would describe the ancient inhabi- 
tants of this country, their dress, mode of traveling, and 
the animals upon which they rode; their cities, their build- 
ings, with every particular; their mode of warfare and 
also their religious worship. This he would do with 
as much ease, seemingly, as if he had spent his whole 
life with them. 


Fenimore Cooper, living in an adjoining county, 
idealized the Indians, but to Joe they “were a dark, 
loathsome, filthy and idle people, they wore a girdle 
about their loins, their heads were shaven, they had 
marked themselves with red in their foreheads. .. . 


THE BOOK OF MORMON 103 


They dwelt in tents; seeking in the wilderness for 
beasts of prey; at night they did rend the air with 
their cries and howlings and their mournings for 
the loss of their slain. . . . They carried the bow, 
the cimiter and the axe, they smote off the scalp 
of their enemies; they took many prisoners and 
tortured them.” 

The theory that the American Indians are de- 
scendants of the Hebrews and in particular of “the 
lost Ten Tribes of Israel,’ who crossed the Pacific 
to America, has long been prevalent and there is a 
considerable literature on the subject. A book on 
the subject by Elias Boudinot entitled A Star in the 
West, or an Attempt to Discover the Lost Ten 
Tribes of Israel, appeared in 1816, and some such 
book may have fallen into the hands of Smith. This 
was the theory of Spaulding’s “Manuscript Found.” 

Our conclusion at this point is that the general © 
contents of the book were drawn from Spaulding’s 
“Manuscript,” the Bible, and the Indian lore and pre- 
vailing ideas of the time. A further examination 
of these ideas will be made in the next section. 


3. MARKS OF INVENTION IN THE BOOK 


We now come to a closer critical examination of 
the book to test its claim to be a supernatural “‘rev- 
elation” to Joseph Smith, Jr. The story of the book 
is full of impossibilities from beginning to end. The 
claim that the plates contained “the learning of the 


104 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


Jews and the language of the Egyptians” is absurd, 
for the Jews knew nothing of the Egyptian lan- 
guage. Hyde calculates that plates of brass and 
gold and “ore” that would have held the Book of 
Mormon “would have formed an immense volume 
of great weight,” perhaps several hundred pounds, 
yet Joe, in one of his accounts, declares that after 
finding it he ran all the way home with it. 

The first emigration under Jared crossed the Pa- 
cific in eight “barges” which “were small and they 
were light upon the water,” and “‘the length thereof 
was the length of a tree”! Yet these small boats, 
something like Indian dugouts, were tossed about on 
the Pacific “three hundred and forty and four days,” 
and carried not only the emigrants but their “herds 
and flock” and “all kinds of animals after their 
kind,” including even “the fish of the waters,” with 
not only “food for all,” but also “fresh water for 
the same length of time.” 

When, guided by a mysterious compass, they 
landed “in the promised land,” somewhere on the 
Western Coast of Central or South America, they 
found there horses and asses, cows and oxen, swine 
and elephants, though not one of these animals then 
existed on this continent. They also found “cure- 
loms and cumons,” but these creatures cannot be 
disputed as they are Smith’s own creations. 

The descendants of Jared multiplied and became a 
great people, but grew in wickedness so that wars 
sprang up among them and depopulated the country. 


THE BOOK OF MORMON 105 


In one of these battles two million men were slain. 
Strange things happened in these battles. For in- 
stance we read: 


And it came to pass that when all had fallen by the 
sword, save it were Coriantumr and Shiz, behold Shiz 
had fainted with loss of blood. And it came to pass when 
Coriantumr had leaned upon his sword, that he rested 
a little, he smote off the head of Shiz. And it came 
to pass that, after he smote off the head of Shiz, that Shiz 
raised upon his hands and fell; and after he had struggled 
for breath, he died. 


Another singular occurrence was the following: 


And when Moroni had said these words, he went forth 
among the people, waving the rent of his garment in the 
air, that all might see the writing which he had wrote 
upon the rent, and crying with a loud voice. 


The book swarms with anachronisms, one of the 
things a fraudulent author can hardly escape and 
one of the surest proofs of invention and deception. 
We read of the “Gospel” and of “churches” six 
hundred years before Christ, and a hundred years 
before Christ “‘all those who were true believers in 
Christ took upon them gladly the name of Christ or 
Christians, as they were called, because of their be- 
lief in Christ who should come.” After his death 
Christ appeared to these people in America and was 
transfigured before them and delivered discourses 
much like the Sermon on the Mount. He appeared 
before a multitude of 2,500 persons and commanded 
them, “Arise and come forth unto me that ye may 


106 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


thrust your hands into my side,’ and the whole 
multitude ‘‘did thrust their hands into his side, and 
did feel the prints of the nails in his hands and in 
his feet; and this they did, going forth one by one, 
until they had all gone forth.” Allowing one-quar- 
ter of a minute for each person, this action would 
have taken over ten hours. 

One of the astounding anachronisms in the book 
is the fact that all the Scripture quotations, which it 
is claimed were translated from the Egyptian lan- 
guage on the plates, are in the English of the Au- 
thorized Version, mistakes and all! For instance, 
in incorporating 1 Cor. 13:5, in the ‘““Book of Mo- 
roni,” the phrase “is not easily provoked,” reads as 
in the Authorized Version, but the word “easily” 
is not found in the Greek and is dropped in the Re- 
vised Version. Joe’s “Urim and Thummim,” 
however, did not detect the absence of this word and 
he put it in. There are hundreds of such instances. 
By the same token of anachronism Shakespeare is 
proved to be a plagiarist, for his famous phrase 
“from whence no traveler can return” was used in 
2 Nephi 1, 14, twenty-two hundred years before the 
bard of Stratford was born. Passages from the 
New Testament are quoted hundreds of years before 
it was written, and the Copernican theory of the 
solar system is proved fifteen hundred years before 
Copernicus (“for sure it is the earth that moveth, 
and not the sun.” Helaman 12:15). Hundreds of 
these anachronisms betray the fraudulent author- 


THE BOOK OF MORMON 107 


ship of the book. A multitude of modern words, 
such as “baptize,” “‘barges,” ‘Bible,’ sprinkle its 
pages. Ungrammatical sentences and the illiterate 
use of words abound.* 

As the book had its origin in Spaulding’s ““Manu- 
script Found” as worked over by Rigdon and pos- 
sibly further worked over or at least copied by 
Smith, we cannot tell how many of these anachro- 
nisms and other errors go back to Rigdon and to 
Spaulding, but we may well attribute the illiteracy 
to Smith, for, according to David Whitmer, a 
Mormon authority, he “was illiterate and but little 
versed in biblical lore, and was ofttimes compelled 
to spell the words out, not knowing the correct pro- 
nunciation.”’ © 


4. ORIGIN OF THE IDEAS OF THE BOOK 


The general idea of the Book of Mormon, that 
it is a final revelation completing that of the New 
Testament as the New Testament completes the Old, 
has appeared from time to time. The following 
famous instance affords a remarkable precedent and 
parallel to the revelation and plates of Joseph Smith: 


About the close of the twelfth century appeared among 
the mendicant friars that ominous work, which, under 
the title of “The Everlasting Gospel,” struck terror into 
the Latin hierarchy. It was affirmed that an angel had 

*Rev. M. T. Lamb has collected many of these in his The Mor- 


mons and Their Bible, pp. 44-51. 
*Ibid., p. 50. 


108 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


brought it from heaven, engraven on copper plates, and 
had given it to a priest named Cyril, who delivered it to 
the Abbot Joachim. The abbot had been dead about fifty 
years, when there was put forth, A. D. 1250, a true 
exposition of the tendency of the book, under the form of 
an introduction, by John of Parma, the general of the 
Franciscans, as was universally suspected or alleged.® 


Belief in this “Everlasting Gospel” as the final 
Gospel superseding all previous revelations, per- 
sisted even down to the Reformation, though “the 
burning of thousands of these ‘Fratricelli’ by the In- 
quisition was altogether inadequate to suppress 
them.” Sidney Rigdon, who was a scholar 
of considerable attainments and was afterward 
Professor of Church History in Nauvoo Uni- 
versity, must have known this story, for it 
was well known to students of church 
history and was published in Mosheim’s Ecclesias- 
tical History, Ancient and Modern, which was a 
widely circulated book and an abridged edition of 
which was published in Philadelphia in 1812. His- 
tory has strange ways of repeating itself and thus 
the very idea of the Book of Mormon may have been 
derived from medieval history. 

The Mormons claim that their book contains the 
true history of the first settlement of this continent 
and of the origin of the American Indians and that 
it gave an account of the building of the ancient 
cities whose ruins are now found in Mexico and 
Central and South America before these ruins were 

*Draper’s Intellectual Development of Europe, p. 382. 


THE BOOK OF MORMON 109 


known to modern historians and archeologists. 
This claim has been utterly disproved in all its parts. 
Shook gives the names of more than thirty volumes 
in English on American history and archeology con- 
taining an account of these ruins, that were pub- 
lished before 1830, many of them books in popular 
circulation. Spaulding and Rigdon must have 
known some of these books.’ 

It has been further shown that the general ideas 
as to the early settlement of this continent found 
in the Book of Mormon were such as were preva- 
lent before 1830. Shook has shown this in an ex- 
haustive examination of the subject, and his con- 
clusions are summarized by him as follows: 


1. According to the Book of Mormon the arts, habits, 
customs, language and religion of ancient America were 
brought from the Old World. This opinion was held by 
the great majority of Americanists at the beginning of 
the last century, one deriving American culture from 
China, another from Atlantis, another from Polynesia, 
and another from Palestine. 

2. The book claims that the first inhabitants of this 
continent came direct from the Tower of Babel. A be- 
lief that was shared in by such early writers as Ulloa, 
Villagutierre, Torquemada, L’Estrange, Thompson and 
others. 

3. The book declares that the American Indians are 
descendants of the children of Israel. Of earlier writers 
who held this view may be mentioned Thorowgood, Penn, 
Ben Ezra, Beatty, Edwards, Stiles, Smith, Boudinot, 
Adair, Mayhew and Eliot. In 1873 Foster declared that 
this theory was “profoundly entertained a century ago.” 


*Cumorah Revisited, pp. 131-134. 


110 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


4. The book tells us further that the valleys of the 
Ohio and the Mississippi were inhabited in ancient times 
by highly civilized peoples, distinct from the American 
Indians. This theory was not new in 1830, having been 
advanced about the beginning of the century by Rev. 
Thaddeus M. Harris, and was held at that time by the 
greater number of American archeologists. 

5. After the defeat of the Nephites at Hill Cumorah 
we are told that their remnant fled into the “south coun- 
tries.’ Heckewelder, as we have seen, gave to the world 
in 1819 a Delaware tradition according to which the 
Tallegwi, the Ohio mound builders, after their defeat 
by the combined forces of the Lenape and Hurons, also 
fled southward. 

6. The book further declares that two distinct, civi- 
lized peoples, the Jaredites and the Nephites, dwelt, in 
ancient times, in Central America and Mexico. Long 
before 1830 the ethnical distinction between the Mayas 
and Nahuas had been observed. 

7. The Jaredites, it is claimed, were all exterminated, 
with the exception of two individuals. The theory of 
“extinct,” “vanished,” and “lost” races was held long be- 
fore it entered into the minds of Spaulding, Rigdon and 
Smith. 

8. The belief that the Christian religion had been 
preached in America, as made in the Book of Mormon, 
was first advocated by many of the Spanish priests of 
Mexico, who saw in the Aztec god, Quentzalcoatl, the 
Apostle Thomas, who, they thought, preached in America 
during the first century of our era. 

Qg. Smith’s claim that he found the plates in Hill 
Cumorah may have been suggested by the Stockbridge 
Indian tradition, obtained by Dr. West and published 
in Boudinot’s Star in the West, in 1816, according to 
which “their fathers were once in possession of a ‘Sacred 
Book’ which was handed down from generation to genera- 
tion and at last hid in the earth.” 


THE BOOK OF MORMON 111 


Nearly all of these points have been disproved 
by modern archeology, and over against them Shook 
places the following conclusions of present Ameri- 
canists, which are supported by numerous authori- 
tative quotations and “have been fully established 
in the preceding pages’’: 


1. That the American race is, and has been, one from 
the close of the Glacial Period to the present, and that 
the American Indians are not descendants of the children 
of Israel. 

2. That the civilization of the ancient races was in- 
digenous and was not derived from either Egypt or 
Palestine, the analogies brought forward to prove such 
a derivation being mere coincidences. 

3. That none of the ancient peoples had attained to 
the stage of culture attributed to the peoples of the 
Book of Mormon, being ignorant of the arts of smelting 
and working iron and the use of alphabetic characters. 

4. That the theory of extinct races—that is, extinct 
in the sense in which Mormons use the term, is a pure 
fallacy, the ancient Mound Builders, Cliff Dwellers, Cen- 
tral Americans, Mexicans and Peruvians being the direct 
ancestors, in both blood and culture, of those races found 
here by the whites. 

5. That the ancient races were neither Jews nor Chris- 
tians, but pagans and worshipers of the elements and 
phenomena of nature, mountains, rocks, trees, beasts, 
birds and men. 

6. That the ancient empires were very small as com- 
pared with the continent and did not comprehend parts of 
both Americas. And 

7. That the trend of migration in the Northern Conti- 
nent was from the north to the south, instead of the 
opposite direction. 

Written across the claim of the historical credibility of 
the Book of Mormon, in letters so bold that every intel- 


112 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


ligent, honest eye may read them, is the word “TEKEL,” 
“thou art weighed in the balances and art found want- 
nee), 


The theological ideas in the Book of Mormon are 
also easily traced to their sources in the religious 
creeds and controversies of the day. In the early 
decades of the nineteenth century Western New 
York, along with New England, of which it was an 
extension, was a hotbed of religious sects and rival- 
ries, when Calvinism and Arminianism and Univer- 
salism were at odds and many strange isms were 
running rife. Alexander Campbell appeared at this 
time in Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio 
and injected his controversial views into the arena, 
Sidney Rigdon, after his exclusion from the Baptist 
Church, becoming one of his followers. All of these 
ideas and conflicts are reflected in the pages of the 
Book of Mormon. The orthodoxy of Presbyterian- 
ism, with which the Smiths were affiliated, was 
under suspicion at this time. In 1837, as we have 
noted, the four synods of Genesee, Geneva, Utica 
and Western Reserve were judged “out of connec- 
tion with the Presbyterian Church,” and ‘‘a few 
trickles of rationalism were bound to seep into 
Joseph’s skull.” 

Professor I. W. Riley has traced the theological 
ideas in the Book of Mormon, placing in parallel 
columns passages from it and from the Westmin- 
ister Confession of Faith, and his conclusion is: 

®*Cumorah Revisited, pp. 134-136, 565-566. 


THE BOOK OF MORMON 113 


Strange as it may seem, the earliest (Indian) tribes 
were Old School Presbyterians. If the speech of Nephi, 
to his brethren, be compared with the Westminster Stand- 
ards, a close parallelism will be disclosed. In all this 
the author’s borrowings were the easiest possible. Even 
if the rest of the family did not remain good Presby- 
terians, the Westminster Confession was to be had in 
other ways; it appeared, for instance, in the frequent re- 
prints of the New England Primer, so that as children 
thumbed its quaint pages, they sucked in Calvanism. But 
if the young prophet had once learned what “man’s chief 
end” was, he did not continue to believe that “In Adam’s 
fall we sinned all’’; early in his book he began to drift 
towards Universalism, saying that “the way is prepared 
from the fall of man,” and that “salvation is free to all.” 
This marked transition in habits of thought is to be gath- 
ered from the elements of the reaction. The Book of 
Mormon is said to present orthodox Trinitarianism; the 
reverse is the truth: it is a hodge-podge of heterodoxy. 
How the author came by the variant doctrines is a per- 
tinent question, for it shows his absolute dependence on 
his own times.® 


Professor Whitsitt, of the Southern Baptist 
Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky., in his article 
on “Mormonism” in The Concise Dictionary of Re- 
ligious Knowledge (New York, 1891), analyzes the 
Book of Mormon with the following result: 


In its theological positions and coloring the Book of 
Mormon is a volume of Disciple theology (this does not 
include the later polygamous doctrine and other gross 
Mormon errors). This conclusion is capable of demon- 
stration beyond any reasonable question. Let notice 
also be taken of the fact that the Book of Mormon bears 
traces of two several redactions. It contains, in the first 


°The Founder of Mormonism, pp. 132-134. 


114 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


redaction, that type of doctrine which the Disciples held 
prior to November 18, 1827, when they had not yet for- 
mally embraced what is commonly considered to be the 
tenet of baptismal remission. It also contains the type 
of doctrine which the Disciples have been defending since 
November 18, 1827, under the name of the ancient Gospel, 
of which the tenet of so-called baptismal remission is a 
leading feature. All authorities agree that Mr. Smith 
obtained possession of the work on September 22, 1827, 
a period of nearly two months before the Disciples con- 
cluded to embrace this tenet. The editor felt that the 
Book of Mormon would be sadly incomplete if this notion 
were not included. Accordingly, he found means to com- 
municate with Mr. Smith, and, regaining possession of 
certain portions of the manuscript, to insert the new 
item. ... Rigdon was the only Disciple minister who 
vigorously and continuously demanded that his brethren 
should adopt the additional points that have been in- 
cluded. 


Alexander Campbell, the founder of the Disciples, 
to the tenets of which Sidney Rigdon became a con- 
vert, as early as 1832 wrote a pamphlet entitled 
“Delusions: an Analysis of the Book of Mormon.” 
in which he says: 


He (the author) decides all the great controversies 
(discussed in New York in the last ten years), infant bap- 
tism, the Trinity, regeneration, repentance, justification, 
the fall of man, the atonement, transubstantiation, fast- 
ing, penance, church government, the call to the ministry, 
the general resurrection, eternal punishment, who may bap- 
tize, and even the questions of Freemasonry and the 
rights of man. 


Such are the contents of this book that claims 
to be a new supernaturally originated and inspired 


THE BOOK OF MORMON 115 


Bible and the final revelation and completion of 
Christianity. We have seen that its alleged origin 
is absurd, that it swarms with impossibilities and 
anachronisms and errors, and that it was fabricated 
out of Solomon Spaulding’s “Manuscript Found 
in the Wilds of Mormon” as worked over by Sidney 
Rigdon and Joseph Smith, Jr. The result is a hodge- 
podge of confusion and nonsense. As the ‘“‘Apoc- 
ryphal Gospels” in their silliness and absurdity stand 
in such glaring contrast with the historic sobriety 
and reality of the genuine Gospels as affords further 
proof of the truth and divine origin of the New 
Testament, so do these modern new “Bibles” by 
their irrationality in contrast with the sanity and 
beauty and sublimity of the true Bible confirm our 
faith in it as the Word of God. 


CHAPTER V 


THE FOUNDING AND ORGANIZATION OF THE 
MORMON CHURCH 


DEAS cannot live without a body and cannot 

travel without hands and feet. Spirit cannot go 
naked through the world but must incorporate itself 
in flesh, and religion everywhere, however purely 
spiritual it may be, soon secretes an organization. 
Joseph Smith and his few associates now had the 
idea of founding a religion and the next step was to 
organize a church. 


I. THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH 


Before the Golden Bible was completed, accord- 
ing to Smith a messenger from heaven, who turned 
out to be John the Baptist, appeared to Smith and 
Cowdery in May, 18209, ‘‘and having laid his hands 
upon us, he ordained us, saying: Upon you, my fel- 
low servants, in the name of the Messiah, I confer 
the priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of 
the ministering angels, and of the Gospel of repent- 
ance, and of baptism by immersion for the remis- 
sion of sins; and this shall never be taken again 


from the earth, until the sons of Levi do offer again 
116 


THE FOUNDING OF THE MORMON CHURCH 117 


an offering unto the Lord in righteousness.” * The 
messenger further informed them that “this Aaronic 
priesthood had not the power of laying on of hands 
for the gift of the Holy Ghost, but that this should 
be conferred on us hereafter; and he commands us 
to go and be baptized, and gave us directions that I 
should baptize Cowdery, and that afterwards he 
should baptize me.” This they did forthwith, and 
no sooner had Smith baptized Cowdery than the 
Holy Ghost fell upon him and Cowdery “stood up 
and prophesied many things which should shortly 
come to pass,” which things, however, Smith dis- 
creetly failed to record. This ordination is held by 
Mormon authorities to exceed that of the Pope and 
bishops of Rome because it came direct from heaven 
and not through a human succession. 

Smith and Cowdery began preaching their new 
religion and converts began to accept it. Smith’s 
brother Samuel was the first convert, Cowdery bap- 
tizing him, Hyrum Smith was the second, and pres- 
ently there were little groups of converts in nearby 
villages which were formed into churches. Almost 
every new convert was the subject of a special reve- 
lation to Smith, who was now receiving many such 
communications which may be found recorded in 
the Doctrine and Covenants. 

On April 6, 1830, “the church of Christ in these 
last days” was “regularly organized and established 
agreeable to the laws of our country, by the will and 


* Pearl of Great Price, p. 98. 


118 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


commandments of God.” ? This meeting was held 
in the house of Peter Whitmer at Fayette, N. Y., 
Smith and Cowdery laying their hands on the con- 
verts and then administering the communion. Six 
members were present at this meeting, but the whole 
number of members at this time is given as being 
about seventy. 

The church at first had no distinctive name, it 
being designated by Smith as “My Church,” and 
on the title-page of the first edition of the Book 
of Commandments it was called the “Church of 
Christ.”” The name “Mormons” was never accept- 
able to the early followers of Smith, and the present 
official title, “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day 
Saints,’ was adopted by a church council on May 
4, 1834. 

Such was the humble start of this church that 
was destined to grow into an organization with hun- 
dreds of thousands of members and to throw its 
tentacles across the continent and into lands beyond 
the seas. 


2. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH 


The church that was founded in the house of 
Peter Whitmer with six members had for its officers 
Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery as its first and 
second elders. But church polity grows by a pro- 
cess of evolution as need arises for further division 


? Doctrine and Covenants, p. 121. 


THE FOUNDING OF THE MORMON CHURCH 119 


and distribution of powers. The Mormon Church 
rapidly developed its organization and in time be- 
came a highly complex and efficient system of 
government and propaganda. 

Smith himself outlined the system in a series of 
revelations, assigned to different dates, that are 
found in sections 18, 20, 102 and 107 of the Doctrine 
and Covenants. There can be little doubt that Rig- 
don furnished Smith the scheme, for David Whit- 
mer in his “Address to Believers in the Book of 
Mormon” says: 


Rigdon would expound the Old Testament Scriptures 
of the Bible and Book of Mormon, in his way, to Joseph, 
concerning the priesthood, high priests, etc., and would 
persuade Brother Joseph to inquire of the Lord about this 
doctrine and about that doctrine, and of course a revela- 
tion would always come just as they desired it. 


This Mormon authority manifests no surprise 
that the ‘revelation would always come just as they 
desired it.” 

A “revelation” in June, 1829 (Sec. 18), directed 
the appointment of twelve disciples or apostles, and 
in June, 1830 (Sec. 21), Smith received the follow- 
ing “revelation” designating his own office in the 
church: ‘Behold there shall be a record kept among 
you, and in it thou shalt be called a seer, a translator, 
a prophet, an apostle of Jesus Christ, an elder of 
the church through the will of God the Father, 
and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, being in- 
spired of the Holy Ghost to lay the foundation 


120 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


thereof, and to build it up unto the most holy faith.” 
Clothed with this authority, Smith arrogated to him- 
self the sole right to receive “revelations,” and he 
could produce such a revelation at any moment to 
meet any emergency, and by this means he put one 
up and another down and ruled his organization 
with the most arbitrary and despotic power. Ina 
series of “revelations” he designated various mem- 
bers of his family as well as others to offices, but 
the “revelation” of April, 1829, contains the gen- 
eral outline of his system, which is based on the 
polity of the priesthood in the Old Testament. 

Without following in detail the steps by which 
the polity of the Mormon Church was developed, it 
will be in order at this point to give an outline of 
its organization as it stands today. It is a hier- 
archy with authority concentrated at the top and 
descending to the bottom. 

At the head of the hierarchy is the president, who 
is the supreme authority as the successor of Joseph 
Smith, the “seer, translator, prophet.” He alone can 
receive “revelations,” his arbitrary word is supreme 
and final and he is “the reigning sultan of the 
church.” 

With the president are associated two councilors, 
and the three together constitute the “first presi- 
dency,’ who are supposed to be the successors of 
Peter, James and John and to typify the trinity. The 
word “quorum” is a general name for various 
groups of officers within the organization of the 


THE FOUNDING OF THE MORMON CHURCH 121 


church. The president and his two councilors con- 
stitute the “quorum of the first presidency.” 

Next in order but standing aside from the direct 
line of power is the “patriarch,’ who has the power 
of pronouncing “blessings,” usually for a considera- 
tion. This office, which was instituted by Joseph 
Smith, Jr., and assigned to his father and next to his 
brother Hyrum, is in effect hereditary in the Smith 
family and ‘“‘seems to have been created to provide 
a title for one of that race.” He may have “visions” 
but not “revelations” and has no real power but 
“deports himself as ecclesiastical supernumeraries 
have done since the days of Amen Ra.”’ * 

Next after the “first presidency” in authority is 
the ‘quorum of the twelve apostles,” the president 
being one of these ex officio with authority equal to 
that of the other eleven. They ordain all other 
officers, elders, priests, teachers and deacons, lead 
all religious meetings and administer the rites of 
baptism and the communion. They are a traveling 
high council and succeed to the supreme authority 
in case the president dies or is disabled. The “high 
council” proper consists of twelve high priests and 
is the supreme court of the church for the trial of 
important cases and to hear appeals from subordi- 
nate high councils. 

Below the “quorum of the twelve” are the “‘sev- 
enties’ quorums.” These bodies are composed of 


*Frank J. Cannon in his Brigham Young and His Mormon Em- 
pire, from which this account of the organization of the Mormon 
church is in part taken. 


122 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


elders divided into groups of seventy, of which there 
are now about one hundred and fifty. Each “sev- 
enty” has seven presidents, and every seven of the 
seventies has a president, and all of these presidents 
constitute a quorum. These presidents are virtually 
subordinate apostles and they are the missionaries 
and propagandists of the church. 

Next come the “high priests,” whose duty it is to 
officiate in all the offices of the church in the absence 
of the higher officials. The priests, teachers and 
deacons constitute “the Aaronic priesthood.” The 
“priesthood of Melchisedec”’ is made up of the presi- 
dent, two councilors, patriarch, apostles, presidents 
of the seventies, elders and high priests. In the 
Aaronic priesthood, which is subordinate to the 
priesthood of Melchisedec and is occupied mainly 
with temporal affairs, the highest office is that of 
the presiding bishop who superintends the collection 
of the tithes. 

The church is divided into “stakes of Zion,” or 
territorial divisions, of which there are now ninety- 
four, nine of these being outside of the United 
States. Each stake is divided into wards, and each 
ward into districts, each of which has its own meet- 
ing house, Sunday school, day school, teachers, and 
debating and literary societies. Each stake also has 
its first presidency consisting of a president and two 
councilors, and each ward has its bishop. 

The church organization is thus a closely-knit hier- 
archy with a myriad of officers descending in rank 


THE FOUNDING OF THE MORMON CHURCH 123 


from the autocratic president down to the teachers 
in the day school. “Every capable man in Mormon 
ranks is given something to do—and kept busy in 
doing it.” The system is a machine which in elabo- 
rate organization and ruthless authority and high 
efficiency has probably not been surpassed in the 
history of religion. 

How are all these officers chosen? There is a 
“General Conference” of the church at which the 
chief officers are elected, and while the polity at the 
top has the appearance of popular government, yet 
the reality is thorough-going autocracy. On this 
point we quote from Frank J. Cannon as follows: 


_ All this large and intricate organization was in Brig- 

ham’s hands. He filled vacancies in the quorum. He 
named the presidents of seventies. He created bishops. 
He promoted, deposed, shifted, supported, or left strug- 
gling whomsoever he would—and in this irresponsible 
despotism he has been followed unto this day. Never 
since the Mormon Church was founded has the congre- 
gation of the people nominated a ruler of the church, 
nor even a member of the hierarchy. The congregation is 
always asked to “sustain’—and always does so. And 
the manner of that “sustaining” is a pitiful absurdity. 
At the general conference of the church, one of the hier- 
archy announces: “It is moved and seconded that we 
sustain (giving the name) as prophet, seer, and revelator 
to all the world.” And so on, through the list. “All 
who are in favor of this motion signify it by raising the 
right hand.” A wave of hands comes from the vast 
assemblage. But no “motion” has been made. Neither 
nomination nor opposition is permitted. The decree of 
God has been uttered. The people are allowed to ratify 
but not to refuse God’s irrevocable choice. 


124 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


Symonds remarks that the Jesuits seem to have dis- 
covered the precise point to which intellectual culture 
can be carried without intellectual emancipation. One 
might say with yet more truth that the Mormon church 
had learned the precise point to which the appearance 
of popular government can be carried without the reality.* 


*Mormon Empire, pp. 210-211. 


CHAPTER VI 
THE DOCTRINES OF THE MORMON CHURCH 


HERE is no single official statement or creed 

of Mormon doctrine, and the teaching of the 
Mormon Church must be collected from its various 
acknowledged standards. These consist of the 
Bible, Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, Doc- 
trine and Covenants, Compendium of Mormon Doc- 
trine, Mormon Doctrine, Mediation and Atonement, 
Key to Theology, Catechism, Journal of Discourses, 
together with the “revelations” of the president of 
the church and the teachings of Mormon instruc- 
tors from the time of Joseph Smith to the present 
day. 

In 1842, Joseph Wentworth, editor of the Chi- 
cago Democrat, applied to Smith for a statement of 
his doctrine and received from him thirteen “Ar- 
ticles of Faith,” which are now printed in the Pearl 
of Great Price. These articles were given out at a 
time when the Mormons were in disrepute and in 
trouble in Missouri and were intended to allay popu- 
lar prejudice and indignation and to give the im- 
pression that the Mormons were simple Christian 
believers holding to the faith of “the primitive 


church.” These articles are as follows: 
125 


126 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


THE ARTICEERS OF (MAT TES 


Of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 


I. We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His 
Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. 

2. We believe that men will be punished for their own 
sins, and not for Adam’s transgression. 

3. We believe that through the atonement of Christ, 
all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and 
ordinances of the Gospel. 

4. We believe that the first principles and ordinances 
of the Gospel are :—First, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; 
Second, Repentance; Third, Baptism by immersion for 
the remission of sins; Fourth, Laying on of Hands, for 
the Gift of the Holy Ghost. 

5. We believe that a man must be called of God, by 
prophecy, and by the laying on of hands, by those who 
are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer 
in the ordinances thereof. 

6. We believe in the same organization that existed in 
the Primitive Church, viz., apostles, prophets, pastors, 
teachers, evangelists, etc. 

7. We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revela- 
tion, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, etc. 

8. We believe the Bible to be the word of God, as far as 
it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of 
Mormon to be the word of God. 

9. We believe all that God has revealed, all that He 
does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal 
many great and important things pertaining to the King- 
dom of God. 

10. We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and 
in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion will be 
built upon this continent; that Christ will reign person- 
ally upon the earth; and that the earth will be renewed 
and receive its paradisiacal glory. 


THE DOCTRINES OF THE MORMON CHURCH 127 


11. We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty 
God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and 
allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, 
where, or what they may. 

12. We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, 
rulers and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sus- 
taining law. 

13. We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, 
virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may 
say that we follow the admonition of Paul, We believe 
in all things, we hope all things, we have endured many 
things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there 
is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praise- 
worthy, we seek after these things. 


There is very little distinctive Mormon teaching 
in these articles and they are of small value in in- 
forming us as to what this teaching really is. The 
present chapter will set forth the chief Mormon doc- 
trines as taught in the standards and by the authori- 
ties of the Mormon Church.* 


I. THE MORMON DOCTRINE OF GOD 


Our belief concerning God is the most funda- 
mental and pervasive of all our beliefs, consciously 


*In this presentation of Mormon teaching we wish to acknowledge 
indebtedness to a booklet entitled Mormon Doctrine, by Rev. John D. 
Nutting, D.D., and published by the Utah Gospel Mission, Cleve- 
land, Ohio, 1905. It follows the thirteen articles, but under each 
one gives quotations, with references, from Mormon authorities 
which show the true Mormon teaching on the subject. It is a val- 
uable summary which gives every indication of having been care- 
fully and honestly made. 

In this chapter the following abbreviations will be used: Book 
of Mormon, B. of M.; Pearl of Great Price, P. G. P.; Doctrine and 
Covenants, D. and C.; Compendium of Mormon Doctrine, Comp.; 
Mormon Doctrine, Mor. Doc.; Mediation and Atonement, M. and A.; 
Key to Theology, K.; Catechism, Cat.; Journal of Discourses, 
‘Bae i: 


128 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


or unconsciously shaping our thoughts of the uni- 
verse and of life and character and destiny. The 
first Article of Smith’s creed is: ‘“We believe in God, 
the Eternal Father, and his Son, Jesus Christ, and in 
‘the Holy Ghost.” This is a quite orthodox state- 
ment, but the incontestable fact is that it is only a 
mask to conceal the most materialistic and repulsive 
views of God. 

The Mormon doctrine of God embraces the fol- 
lowing points: (a) There are many gods: “Are 
there more Gods than one? Yes, many” (Cat., 13). 
(b) These gods are polygamous or “sealed” human 
beings grown divine: “God himself was once as we 
now are, and is an exalted Man” (Joseph Smith, 
J. of D., VI: 4); “And you have got to learn how 
to be Gods yourselves, the same as all Gods have 
done before you” (Jbid.); “Then shall they [that 
have been “sealed” in marriage] be Gods, because 
they have all power, and the angels are subject unto 
them” (D. and C., 467). (c) Adam the God of this 
world: ‘““He [Adam] is our Father and our God, 
and the only God with whom we have to do” (Brig- 
ham Young, J. of D., 1:50). (d) These Gods have 
fleshly bodies: “There is no other God in heaven 
but that God who has flesh and bones” (Smith, 
Comp., 287). (e) They are polygamous: “When 
our Father Adam came into the garden of Eden, he 
came with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of 
his wives, with him” (Young, J. of D., 1:50). (f) 
They have children forever: “Each God, through 


THE DOCTRINES OF THE MORMON CHURCH 129 


his wife, or wives, raises up a numerous family of 
sons and daughters: ... for each father and 
mother will be in a condition to multiply for ever 
gacvever, (lhe Seer,.1237:). 

When the mask is thus torn off the Mormon 
“God, the Eternal Father,’ we see a hideous dis- 
closure of fleshly polygamous gods reveling in sexual 
propagation through all eternity. Such a God or 
gods are the proper father of such a system of faith 
and practice, and such a system is the proper and 
necessary offspring of such sensual and polygamous 
gods. 


2. THE MORMON DOCTRINE OF CHRIST AND THE HOLY 
SPIRIT 


The Mormon doctrine of Christ is in keeping with 
the Mormon doctrine of God. (a) Christ is a fleshly 
being along with the Father: “Jesus Christ and his 
Father are two persons, in the same sense as John 
and Peter are two persons. Each of them has an 
organized, individual tabernacle, embodied in ma- 
terial form, and composed of material substance, in 
the likeness of man, and possessing every organ, 
limb and physical part that man possesses” (K., 39- 
40). (b) He is the son of the Adam-God: “The 
Father had begotten him in his own likeness. He 
was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. And who is 
the Father? He is the first of the human family” 
(Young, J. of D., 1:50). (c) He was a polygamist: 


130 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


“We say it was Jesus Christ who was married [at 
Cana to the Marys and Martha] whereby he could 
see his seed before he was crucified” (Apostle Orson 
Hyde, Sermon 3). 

The Holy Spirit is also viewed as a refined ma- 
terial substance, to be classed with “electricity, gal- 
vanism, magnetism, animal magnetism,” etc. “The 
purest, most refined and subtle of all these sub- 
stances, and the one least understood, or even recog- 
nized, by the less informed among mankind, is that 
substance called the Holy Spirit” (K., 44). “Each 
of these Gods ... is subject to the laws which 
govern, of necessity, even the most refined order of 
physical existence” (K., 42). ‘There is no such 
thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but 
is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by 
purer eyes” (Joseph Smith, Comp., 259). 


3. THE MORMON DOCTRINE OF MAN 


The following are the chief points in the Mormon 
doctrine of man: (a) Men and Gods are one species: 
“Gods, angels and men are all of one species, one 
race, one great family, widely diffused among the 
planetary systems, as colonies, kingdoms, nations, 
etc.” (K., 39). (b) Men were born in the spirit- 
world and came to this world for bodies: ‘This 
individual, spiritual body, was begotten by the 
Heavenly Father, in his own likeness and image 
and by the laws of procreation. . . . This has been 


THE DOCTRINES OF THE MORMON CHURCH 131 


called the ‘first estate.’ . . . The spirits which kept 
their first estate were permitted to descend below, 
and to obtain tabernacles of flesh in the rudimental 
existence in which we find them in our present 
world, and which we call a second estate” (K., 53- 
54). (c) Man’s mission is to propagate: “You are 
here . . . to raise families and properly educate 
them” (President Snow). (d) Polygamists and 
other “sealed’’ Mormons become gods: “Through 
the essence and power of the Godhead, which is in 
him, ... he is capable of rising from the contracted 
limits of manhood to the dignity of a God, . . . and 
is capable of eternal exaltation, eternal lives [in the 
propagation of children] and eternal progress” 
(President Taylor). 


4. THE MORMON DOCTRINE OF SIN 


The pantheistic pluralism of Mormonism logically 
leads to fatalism in its doctrine of sin: ““Adam found 
himself in a position that compelled him to disobey 
one of the requirements of God” (J. E. Talmage). 
“Was it necessary that Adam should partake of the 
forbidden fruit? A. Yes, unless he had done so 
he would not have known good and evil here, neither 
could he have had moral posterity. . . . Did Adam 
and Eve lament or rejoice because they had trans- 
gressed the commandment? A. They rejoiced and 
praised God” (Cat.). 


132 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


5. THE MORMON DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT AND OF 
BLOOD ATONEMENT 


“The word atonement signifies deliverance, 
through the offering of a ransom, from the penalty 
of a broken law. As effected by Jesus Christ, it 
signifies the deliverance, through his death and re- 
surrection, of the earth and everything pertaining 
to it, from the power which death has obtained over 
them through the transgression of Adam” (Comp., 
8). 

The doctrine of atonement in time was perverted 
into the horrible Mormon doctrine and practice of 
“blood atonement.” This was the doctrine of human 
sacrifice and was based on the theory that some 
grave sins can be atoned for only by the shedding 
of the blood of the sinner himself. This dreadful 
obsession, while earlier hinted at, was first openly 
promulgated in Salt Lake City by Jedediah M. 
Grant, of the first presidency, who was sometimes 
called ‘““Brigham’s sledge hammer.” ? At a notable 
meeting in 1856 he declared: “I say there are men 
and women that I would advise to go to the Presi- 
dent immediately, and ask him to appoint a com- 
mittee to attend to their case; and then let the place 
be selected, and let that committee shed their blood. 
We have those amongst us that are full of all man- 
ner of abominations; those who need to have their 


7On the doctrine of blood atonement see Journal of Discourses, 
IV : 219-220; Stenhouse, Rocky Mountain Saints, pp. 292-308; Hyde, 
Mormonism, 179-180; Linn, Story, pp. 444-447, 454-457. 


THE DOCTRINES OF THE MORMON CHURCH 133 


blood shed, for water will not do; their sins are too 
deep for that.” In the next year Brigham Young 
in a sermon, which may be read in the Journal of 
Discourses, Vol. IV, declared: 


All mankind love themselves: and let those principles 
be known by an individual, and he would be glad to have 
his blood shed. This would be loving ourselves even 
unto eternal exaltation. Will you love your brothers 
or sisters likewise when they have a sin that cannot be 
atoned for without the shedding of their blood? That is 
what Jesus meant. . . . I could refer you to plenty of in- 
stances where men have been righteously slain in order 
to atone for their sins. ... The wickedness and ig- 
norance of the nations forbid this principle being in full 
force, but the time will come when the law of God will 
be in full force. This is loving our neighbor as ourselves ; 
if he needs help, help him; if he wants salvation and it is 
necessary to spill his blood on earth in order that he may 
be saved, spill it. 


We shall hear later of the practice of this terrible 
fanaticism. 


6. CHURCH ORGANIZATION 


Article 6 of Smith’s Thirteen Articles reads: 
“We believe in the same organization that existed in 
the primitive church, namely, apostles, prophets, 
pastors, teachers, evangelists, etc.” We have seen 
however, how this primitive organization has been 
developed in the Mormon Church into an enormous 
tyrannical hierarchy. All the Christian churches, 
according to Mormon doctrine, are spurious and 
are under the wrath and curse of God. Joseph 


134 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


Smith in his account of his first ‘“‘vision’’ declares: 
“I was answered that I must join none of them, 
for they were all wrong . . . all their creeds were 
an abomination in his sight.” The ministry of the 
Christian church is “‘a spurious priesthood, desti- 
tute of divine authority, divine inspiration and di- 
vine power, .. . set up by ambitious and design- 
ing man, . .. base counterfeit of true and heavenly 
coin’ (Mor. Doc., p. 21). “Any person who shall 
be so wicked as to receive a holy ordinance of the 
gospel from the ministers of these apostate churches 
will be sent down to hell with them, unless he re- 
pents of the unholy and impious act’ (The Seer, 
Vols. I and II, p. 255). 


7. THE PRIESTHOOD 


Article 5 reads: “We believe that a man must be 
called of God, by prophecy, and by laying on of 
hands, by those who are in authority, to preach the 
Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.” 
This authority of the Mormon priesthood is applied 
and exercised in the most absolute and arbitrary 
way over all thoughts and actions: “Their priest- 
hood gives them the right to advise and instruct the 
Saints, and their jurisdiction extends over all things 
spiritual and temporal” (Sermon by Dr. Gowans, 
Logan Journal, May 26, 1898). ‘When aman says 
you may direct me _ spiritually but not tem- 
porally, he lies in the presence of God” 


THE DOCTRINES OF THE MORMON CHURCH 135 


(Deseret News, April 25, 1895). ‘Whatever I 
might have obtained in the shape of learning by 
searching and study respecting the arts and sciences 
of men, whatever principles I may have imbibed 
during my scientific researches, yet, if the prophet 
of God should tell me that a certain theory or prin- 
ciple which I might have learned was not true, I 
do not care what my ideas might have been, I should 
consider it my duty at the suggestion of my file 
leader to abandon that principle or theory” (Wil- 
ford Woodruff, J. of D., V: 83). 


8. ORDINANCES 


We believe that the first principles and ordinances of 
the Gospel are :—First, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; 
Second, Repentance; Third, Baptism by immersion for 
remission of sins; Fourth, Laying on of Hands for the 
Gift of the Holy Ghost.” Baptism is extended to baptism 
for the dead by which living substitutes may be baptized 
for dead friends or for any dead. ‘The living may be 
baptized for the dead... . The living relatives stand 
in the name and place of the departed and receive the 
ordinances to be placed to the credit of the dead. (Mor. 
Doc. 38, 40). 


This doctrine was a very taking one with the uneducated 
Mormon converts who crowded into Nauvoo, and the 
church officers saw in it a means to hasten the work on 
the Temple. At first families would meet on the bank of 
the Mississippi River, and some one, of the order of 
the Melchisedec Priesthood, would baptize them whole- 
sale for all their dead relatives whose names they could 
remember, each sex for relatives of the same.® 


*Linn, Story, p. 119. 


136 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


It is said that the Mormons have performed this 
rite for Abraham Lincoln and many other noted 
men. 


Q. MIRACLES 


“We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, 
revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of 
tongues, etc.” “QO. What are the peculiar manifes- 
tations of the Holy Ghost? A. Amongst others, vi- 
sions, dreams, prophecies, speaking divers tongues, 
interpretation of tongues, discernment of spirits and 
angels; knowledge, wisdom, extraordinary faith, 
healings and miraculous powers. ... These . 
manifestations of the Spirit always follow faith 
in and obedience to the Gospel” (Cat., pp. 43, 
44). Asanexample of such “prophecy” we may take 
the following uttered in 1838 by Parley P. Pratt and 
printed in his pamphlet Mormonism Unveiled: “I 
will state as a prophecy, that there will not be an 
unbelieving Gentile upon this continent 50 years 
hence; and if they are not greatly scourged, and in 
a great measure overthrown, within five or ten years 
from this date, then the Book of Mormon will have 
proved itself false.” 


I0. THE BIBLE AND MORMON REVELATIONS 


“We consider the Bible, Book of Mormon, Book 
of Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price 


THE DOCTRINES OF THE MORMON CHURCH 137 


and sayings of Joseph, the Seer, our guides in faith 
and doctrine’ (Com., Preface). “Thou fool, that 
shall say, A Bible, a Bible, we have got a Bible, 
and we need no more Bible . . . ye need not sup- 
pose that it contains all my words; neither need ye 
suppose that I have not caused more to be written” 
(B: of M., 2 Nephi, 29:6-10). ‘Wilford Woodruff 
is a prophet, and I know that he has a great many 
prophets around him, and he can make Scriptures 
as good as those in the Bible” (Apostle J. W. Taylor, 
Conference, Salt Lake, April 5, 1897). ‘Compared 
with the living oracles these books are nothing to 
me” (Wilford Woodruff). 


II. LIBERTY OF WORSHIP 


“We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty 
God according to the dictates of our conscience, and 
allow all men the same privilege, let them worship 
how, where or what they may.” Over against this 
statement stands not only much bloody Mormon 
history but also this equally authoritative statement 
of Brigham Young: “I say, rather than apostates 
should flourish here, I will unsheath my bowie knife, 
and conquer or die. Now, you nasty apostates, 
clear out, or judgment will be put to the line... . 
I want you to hear, bishops, what I am about to tell 
you: Kick these men out of your wards” (J. of D., 


1:83). 


138 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


IZ. RELATION TO CIVIL GOVERNMENT 


“We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, 
rulers and magistrates, in obeying, honoring and 
sustaining the law.” Another fair statement against 
which cries out many a bloody page of Mormon 
rebellion and many inspired declarations such as the 
following: The priesthood holds “the power and 
right to give laws and commandments to individuals, 
churches, rulers, nations and the world; to appoint, 
ordain and establish constitutions and kingdoms; 
to appoint kings, presidents, governors, or judges’’ 
(Key, p. 70). The priesthood “is the legitimate 
rule of God, whether in the heavens or on the earth, 
and it is the only legitimate power that has a right 
to rule on the earth; and when the will of God is 
done on the earth as it is in heaven, no other power 
will be or rule’ (Apostle John Taylor). 


13. MORALITY AND VIRTUE 


The professed “Articles of Faith” end with the 
following: “We believe in being honest, true, chaste, 
benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; 
indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition 
of Paul, We believe all things, we hope all things, 
we have endured many things, and hope to be able 
to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, 
lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek 
after these things.” It need not be denied or 


THE DOCTRINES OF THE MORMON CHURCH 139 


doubted that there is a fair degree of morality and 
virtue among Mormon people, especially in these 
latter days when they are more exposed and sub- 
ject to public opinion and civil law, but on this point 
we shall let their own highest authority speak: 
“T have many a time, in this stand, dared the world 
to produce as mean devils as we can. We can beat 
them at anything. We have the greatest and 
smoothest liars in the world, the cunningest and 
most adroit thieves, and any other shade of char- 
acter that youcan mention. Wecan pick out elders 
in Israel right here who can beat the world at gam- 
bling; who can handle the cards; can cut and shuffle 
them with the smartest rogue on God’s footstool. I 
can produce elders here who can shave their smart- 
est shavers, and take their money from them. We 
can beat the world at any game. [Why?] We 
can beat them because we have men here that live 
in the light of the Lord; that have the holy priest- 
hood, and hold the keys of the kingdom of God” 
(Brigham Young, Deseret News, VI, 291; J. of D., 
IV: 77). This point in Mormon history and prac- 
tice will frequently recur later in this study. 


I4. POLYGAMY AND MARRIAGE 


The most distinctive doctrine and practice of 
Mormonism is not mentioned in these “Articles of 
Faith,” but it is abundantly written in its standards. 
The Book of Mormon itself repeatedly forbids plu- 


140 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


rality of wives. In the “Book of Jacob,” 2:24-27, 
it is recorded: ‘Behold, David and Solomon truly 
had many wives and concubines, which thing was 
abominable before me, saith the Lord. . . . Where- 
fore, my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word 
of the Lord; for there shall not any man among you 
have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall 
have none. For I, the Lord God, delighteth in the 
chastity of women.” But later, on July 12, 1843, 
Smith received a long “‘Revelation on the Eternity of 
the Marriage Covenant, including Plurality of 
Wives,” which still stands as Section 132 in the 
Book of Doctrine and Covenants. “And again, as 
pertaining to the law of the priesthood: if a man 
espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse another, . . . 
if he have ten virgins given unto him by this law, 
he cannot commit adultery, for they belong to him, 
and they are given unto him, therefore he is justi- 
fied” (p. 473). “If plural marriage be unlawful, 
then is the whole plan of salvation, through the 
house of Israel, a failure, and the entire fabric of 
Christianity without foundation” (Comp., p. 125). 
“Those who denounce patriarchal marriage will 
have to stay without and never walk the golden 
streets” (Bible and Polygamy, p. 158). It is an 
essential part of the Mormon doctrine that marriage 
is for eternity and will be attended with “eternal 
increase’ (Comp., p. 120), and salvation for women — 
is made to depend on their being ‘“‘sealed” in mar- 
riage to eternity. 


THE DOCTRINES OF THE MORMON CHURCH 141 


The matter of polygamy will frequently enter into 
our further account of Mormonism, and we conclude 
this brief summary of Mormon doctrine with the 
following statement of its system in the article on 
“Mormons” in the Eleventh Edition of the Encyclo- 
pedia Britannica: 


A system of polytheism has been grafted on an earlier 
form of the creed, according to which there are grades 
among the gods; the place of supreme ruler of all being 
taken by the primeval Adam of Genesis, who is the deity 
highest in spiritual rank, while Christ, Mahomet, Joseph 
Smith and Brigham Young also partake of divinity. The 
business of these deities is the propagation of souls to 
people bodies begotten_on earth, and the sexual relation 
permeates the creed. The saints on leaving this world 
are deified, and their glory is in proportion to the number 
of their wives and children; hence the necessity and 
justification of polygamy (although its practice is not 
now authorized by the Church), andthe practice of having 
many wives sealed to one saint. Marriage, if accom- 
panied by the ecclesiastical ceremony of “sealing,” is for 
eternity, and is a necessary pre-requisite of heavenly bliss. 
A man may be sealed to any number of women, but no 
woman may be sealed to more than one man. Both mar- 
riage and sealing by proxy are permitted to assure salva- 
tion to women who die unsealed. This system of spiritual 
wives or celestial marriage is based on the idea that a 
woman cannot be saved except through her husband. 
Polygamous marriage is supposed to make possible the 
procreation of enough bodies for thousands of spirits 
which have long awaited incarnation. Especially in their 
earlier years the Mormons believed in faith healing, and 
Joseph Smith bade them “trust in God, and live by faith 
and not by medicine or poison.” Their distinguishing points 
of faith are: religiously, a belief in a continual divine 


142 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


revelation through the inspired medium of the prophet at 
the head of the Church; morally, polygamy, though this 
is condemned in the Book of Mormon, as has been noticed 
above; and, socially, a complete hierarchical organization. 
They believe in the Bible as supplemented by the Book of 
Mormon, the Book of Doctrine, and revelation through the 
president of the Church; in the gift of prophecy, miracles 
and casting out devils; in the imminent approach of the 
end of the world; in their own identity with the apoca- 
lyptic saints who shall reign with Christ in a temporal 
kingdom, either in Missouri (at Independence) or in Utah; 
in the resurrection of the body; in absolute liberty of 
private judgment in religious matters; and in the salva- 
tion of man only if he believes in Christ’s atonement, re- 
pents, is baptized by immersion by a Christ-appointed 
apostle and receives the laying on of hands for the gift 
of the Holy Ghost by duly authorized apostles. 


CuHapTter VII 
SETTLEMENT IN OHIO 


MITH and his followers, having organized their 
church at Fayette, New York, on April 6, 1830, 
began the work of preaching their faith, but soon 
encountered checks in public prejudice and opposi- 
tion. It outraged the moral and religious sense of 
the community that people of the ill reputation of 
the Smiths should be proclaiming a new religion and 
baptizing converts. A dam that had been thrown 
across a stream to provide a place for baptisms was 
destroyed in the night. Joe Smith himself was ar- 
rested on a charge that he had obtained a horse and 
yoke of oxen by means of an alleged ‘‘revelation”’ 
and also that he had behaved improperly towards 
the daughters of one of his followers, but at the trial 
he was acquitted. These conditions and events led 
Smith and his followers to seek a more congenial 
environment, and westward the star of Mormonism 
took its way. 


I. THE CHURCH AT KIRTLAND 


The evidence shows, as we have already seen, that 


Smith had several years before this time formed a 
143 


144 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


secret arrangement with Sidney Rigdon, who was 
pastor of a Disciples church at Kirtland, in north- 
eastern Ohio, and this fact turned the course of 
events to this village in the Western Reserve. In 
October, 1830, four elders, Oliver Cowdery, Parley 
P. Pratt, Peter Whitmer, Jr., and Ziba Peterson, 
were sent as missionaries ostensibly to preach to the 
‘Lamanites” or Indians and reached Kirtland, where 
they tarried for a time and then passed on westward 
to Missouri, where we shall follow them later in this 
story. 

At Kirtland Cowdery and his associates found 
Rigdon and entered into negotiations with him. At 
first Rigdon made some show of hesitation at re- 
ceiving the new Bible, but he knew more about it 
than appeared on the surface. Presently he pro- 
fessed conversion and was baptized. He then ap- 
peared before his church in his pulpit and “in a two 
hours’ discourse of fervid eloquence, eloquent to 
those hearers, he expostulated, instructed, explained, 
and converted them ;—he wept tears of sorrow and 
joy over them, fell into swoons several times, and 
related visions of heaven to them. They became 
real fanatics.’ * The conversion of Rigdon, who 
was a powerful revivalistic preacher and influential 
leader, made a profound impression and drew many 
of his people after him. 

The settlers of the Western Reserve, who had 
emigrated from New England bringing with them 


*J. W. Gunnison, The Mormons, p. Io. 


SETTLEMENT IN OHIO 145 


its mental and emotional characteristics, were easily 
excited and swayed in their religious beliefs, and 
fanatical contagion ran with incredible swiftness 
through the community. Revivalism was rampant, 
and the physical and psychical phenomena of “jerks” 
and other strange doings at times swept over the 
neighborhood like wildfire. The new religion with 
its “revelations” and miraculous healings and won- 
derful stories of “gold plates” and a new Bible 
caught the credulity of the people and they accepted 
it with unreasoning alacrity and avidity. In several 
weeks after the Mormon emissaries arrived in Kirt- 
land they had baptized 127 converts, and by the next 
spring the number had increased to 1,000. 

The missionary propaganda of the church was 
formally inaugurated by Smith in a “revelation” 
(Sec. 42) given at Kirtland on February 9, 1831, in 
which the elders, except Smith and Rigdon, were 
commanded to “go forth for a little season.” ‘And 
ye shall go forth in the power of my Spirit, preach- 
ing my gospel, two by two, in my name, lifting up 
your voices as with the voice of a trump, . . . and 
from this place ye shall go forth into the regions 
westward; and inasmuch as ye shall find them that 
will receive you, ye shall build up my church in 
every region.” This was the beginning of the sys- 
tem of propaganda which has been extended over 
the world and is today being prosecuted with such 
persistent and earnest zeal. 

These first missionaries went, not only westward, 


146 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


but also northward into Canada and back eastward 
into New England and met with astonishing success. 
Joe Smith did not have to labor and wait under dis- 
couragement for years before seeing any substantial 
results, but his sails caught the wind as soon as his 
ship was loose from the shore. Powerful oppo- 
nents at once arose against the new cult and fa- 
naticism, for it was immediately seen to be not only 
absurd but a social and moral menace. Alexander 
Campbell blew a mighty blast from his trumpet in 
a pamphlet exposing it, which pamphlet was re- 
printed and scattered through New England, yet the 
new religion found a ready reception, and “in three 
years after Smith and Rigdon met in Palmyra, Mor- 
mon congregations had been established in nearly 
all the Northern and Middle states and in some of 
the Southern, with baptisms of from 30 to 130 ina 
place.” ? 


2. BUSINESS VENTURES AND FAILURES 


Kirtland was at first viewed as a temporary stop- 
ping place in the westward march of Mormonism, 
for Smith and Rigdon had their eyes on Missouri 
as the location of their “New Jerusalem,” and early 
visited that state, but they met with discouraging 
opposition and decided to make a permanent stake 
of Zion in Ohio. They then began to launch out 


*Turner’s Mormonism in All Ages, p. 38, quoted by Linn, Story, 
p. 132. 


SETTLEMENT IN OHIO 147 


on various business schemes that soon involved them 
and their church in disaster. 

Several farms were purchased and the town of 
Kirtland was laid out on paper in a plan that pro- 
vided for 32 streets crossing at right angles and 
cutting out 225 blocks of 20 lots each. Lots were 
sold and speculation set in and ran high. Ground 
was set apart for a temple and its construction 
began, the corner-stone being laid on July 23, 1833, 
and the dedication taking place on March 27, 1836. 
The building, which is still in use, is 60 by 80 feet 
in size, and two stories high, the spire rising to a 
height of 123 feet. True religious devotion was 
shown in its building, the men giving one day a 
week to the work without pay, often living on corn 
meal, and the women knitting and weaving garments 
for the workmen. It cost $40,000, and involved 
the church in a debt of upward of $20,000. The 
long prayer received by Smith in a “revelation” and 
offered at the dedication of this temple is recorded 
in the Doctrine and Covenants, pages 395-404, and 
contains many threats of vengeance against the ene- 
mies of the new faith, calling upon the Lord to 
“make bare thine arm,” and “that the cause of thy 
people may not fail before thee, may thine anger be 
kindled, and thine indignation fall upon them, that 
they may be wasted away, both root and branch, 
from under heaven.” Smith and Rigdon had made 
a new translation of the Scriptures at Kirtland, 
being the Authorized Version with some changes 


148 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


and additions of their own, and their study of tlie 
Old Testament had obviously inspired them with the 
temper and methods of the imprecatory Psalms. 

It would appear that all the members held their 
property subject to the disposition of the church, 
or of Smith, who could at any time receive a “revela- 
tion” commanding any member to hand over his pos- 
_ sessions. As originally published the Book of Com- 
mandments declared “Thou shalt consecrate all thy 
properties, that which thou hast, unto me, with a 
covenant and deed which cannot be broken.” It is 
confusing, however, to find these “revelations,” 
which Smith professed to receive by direct commu- 
nication from God, undergoing many changes in 
different editions of the Doctrine and Covenants, 
so that this book for many years was in a fluid 
state and presents various conflicting and sometimes 
contradictory commands. The provision on this 
point now is (Sec. 42: 32): ‘Every man shall be 
made accountable unto me, a steward over his own 
property, or that which he received by consecration, 
inasmuch as is sufficient for himself and family.” 
As debts were piling up, Smith would get what he 
could by this provision, though evidently he did not 
dare go too far with it. 

On July 8, 1838, after he fled to Missouri, he re- 
ceived a “revelation” ordering William Marks, 
Newel K. Whitney, Oliver Granger, “‘and others,” 
to “‘settle up their business speedily, . . . repent of 
all their sins,” and “Let the properties of Kirtland 


SETTLEMENT IN OHIO 149 


be turned out for debts, saith the Lord.” Under 
the same date he received another “revelation” re- 
quiring “‘all their surplus property to be put in the 
hands of the bishop of my church of Zion, for the 
building of mine house, and for the laying of the 
foundation of Zion and for the Priesthood, and for 
the debts of the Presidency of my church; and this 
shall be the beginning of the tithing of my people.” 
Yet Smith was not able by this enforced expropria- 
tion of property to clear his organization of debt and 
save it from bankruptcy. 

Various business enterprises were launched at 
Kirtland. A general store was opened, described as 
“a poorly furnished country store where commerce 
looks starvation in the face.” The store lost money 
because the members would demand goods on trust 
and then would not pay for them. “Joseph was a 
first rate fellow with them all the time,” explained 
Brigham Young, “provided he would never ask them 
to pay him.” <A steam sawmill and a tannery and 
printing shop were started and these were losing 
concerns. 

All sorts of schemes were devised to meet these 
growing losses and debts. On one occasion Smith 
and Rigdon and Oliver Cowdery went to Salem, 
Massachusetts, whither they were lured by a tale 
brought them by a Mormon named Burgess of a 
hidden treasure buried in the cellar of a house in 
that town. Smith hired a house that he thought 
might be the right one, but when they found the tale 


150 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


was a delusion, he, as usual, met the situation with 
a “revelation” (Sec. 111), in which he said: “I, the 
Lord your God, am not displeased with your com- 
ing this journey, notwithstanding your follies; I 
have much treasure in this city for you, .. . andit 
shall come to pass in due time that I will give this 
city into your hands, that you shall have power over 
it, . . . and its wealth pertaining to gold and silver 
shall be yours. Concern not yourself about your 
debts, for I will give you power to pay them.” This 
expedition of the “money-digger” proved him a 
dupe and his “revelation” false, for many of the 
debts at Kirtland were never paid. 

The great business venture and fiasco at Kirt- 
land was the bank which was organized on Novem- 
ber 2, 1836, as “The Safety Society Bank,” with an 
alleged capital of $4,000,000. Oliver Cowdery went 
to Philadelphia to get plates for printing the money, 
and he came back not only with the plates but also 
with $200,000 in printed bills. The state legisla- 
ture had refused a charter to the society, and the 
notes of unchartered banks were outlawed by the 
state law. To meet this difficulty the Safety So- 
ciety reorganized on January 2, 1837, as the ‘“‘Kirt- 
land Safety Society anti-Bank-ing,” the bills being 
changed with a stamp by inserting “anti” before 
and “ine” after the word “Bank.’*? Upwards of 
$100,000 of these bills were floated, and when a de- 
mand was made by some Pittsburgh banks for their 

*A facsimile of one of these bills is given by Linn, Story, p. 148. 





BRIGHAM YOUNG 





SETTLEMENT IN OHIO 151 


redemption in specie, Rigdon loudly asserted the 
solvency of the institution. “But when a request 
for the coin was repeated, it was promptly refused 
by him on the ground that the bills were a circulating 
medium ‘for the accommodation of the public,’ and 
that to call any of them in would defeat their object’’! 
All sorts of subterfuges were employed to refuse 
and defeat payment of the bills, which were never 
redeemed. Smith and Rigdon’s clever “anti-Bank- 
ine’”’ device did not protect them from the state law, 
and they were arrested and convicted, but appealed 
the case. Before the appeal came to trial, the 
prophet and his accomplice fled the state. 


3. IMMORALITIES, DISSENSIONS AND FLIGHT 


The stay of the Mormons at Kirtland was marked 
by increasing disorders and dissentions. Smith 
himself was the object of much criticism and of 
some grave charges. He was outspoken to the point 
of ‘brutal frankness and abuse in his relations with 
his officers and members. In his sermons in the 
temple he would express himself in crude and slangy 
style and was in the habit of announcing, ‘The truth 
is good enough without dressing up, but brother Rig- 
don will now dress it up”; and he bluntly told a con- 
vert who had come from Canada to join his church 
“not to bray so much like a jackass.” 

The prophet was arrested on a charge of having 
hired two Mormons to kill a farmer near the town 


152 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


who was specially open in his opposition to the cult, 
but at the hearing he was discharged. He was also 
charged with improper relations with an orphan girl 
Mrs. Smith had taken into the family, and it was 
said that he had confessed to similar relations with 
another young woman. 

It was already rumored around that polygamy 
was being practiced by “the Saints” at Kirtland; and 
color is given to this charge by action taken by the 
Mormons themselves. In the 1835 edition of the 
Doctrine and Covenants occurs this passage (Sec. 
101): “Inasmuch as this church of Christ has been 
reproached with the crime of fornication and polyg- 
amy, we declare that we believe that one man should 
have one wife, and one woman one husband, except 
in case of death, when either is at liberty to marry 
again.” This passage disappeared from later edi- 
tions, but its presence shows that this charge was 
made. Evidence that even elders practiced polyg- 
amy at this time is found in a minute adopted on 
April 29, 1837, at a meeting of the Presidents of the 
Seventies which declared: ‘‘First, that we will have 
no fellowship whatever with any elder belonging to 
the Quorum of the Seventies, who is guilty of 
polygamy.” 

These rumors together with the exposure of 
Smith’s financial methods led to the seizure of Smith 
and Rigdon on the night of March 25, 1832, by a 


“Details and evidence as to these and other charges will be found 
in Linn, Story, pp. 153-160. 


SETTLEMENT IN OHIO 153 


mob who dragged them out of their homes and 
tarred and feathered and otherwise abused them. 
The Mormons claim that this outrage was an act 
of religious persecution; but the evidence in the case 
shows that it grew out of the financial and moral 
practices of Smith and his followers who soon be- 
came obnoxious to the community. 

The most damaging evidence against the Mor- 
mons at this time comes out of their own mouths, 
for they indulged in the bitterest mutual recrimina- 
tions. Against Oliver Cowdery and David Whit- 
mer, “witnesses” to the plates, this charge was made 
in writing: “You commenced your wickedness by 
heading a party to disturb the worship of the Saints 
in the first day of the week, and made the house of 
the Lord in Kirtland to be a scene of abuse and 
slander, to destroy the reputation of those whom the 
church had appointed to be their teachers, and for 
no other cause only that you were not the persons.” 
In 1837 a High Council was called to try eight high 
officials, who were in rebellion against Smith, but 
“the Council dispersed in confusion.” In an edi- 
torial in the Elders’ Journal Smith denounced “a set 
of creatures” that had been expelled from the church 
as a “gang of horse thieves and drunkards.” Mar- 
tin Harris, one of the “‘witnesses,” and now a high 
priest, and Cyrus Smalling, one of the Seventy, were 
declared by Smith to be “beneath contempt,” and 
Leonard Rich, one of the seven presidents of the 
seventy elders, was declared to be “generally so 


154 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


drunk that he had to support himself by something 
to keep from falling down,’ and two members of 
the sacred “Twelve” are branded as “a pair of 
blacklegs.”’ 

There were a number of rebellions and secessions 
from the church in these early days. One of these 
was led by “a certain young woman,” who began to 
prophesy by means of “looking through a black 
stone,’ and when a paper was circulated “in order to 
ascertain how many would follow them, it was 
found that a large number of the church were 
disaffected.” ° 

The collapse of the “anti-Bank-ing’’ society led 
to violent scenes among the Mormons and in the 
sacred precincts of the temple itself. One Sunday 
evening the elder Smith made charges against War- 
ren Parish, on whom the Smiths tried to lay the 
blame of the bank failure, when Parish leaped at the 
old man and attempted to drag him bodily from the 
pulpit. One of the Smith brothers rushed Parish 
out of the temple, others became involved, a weapon 
was drawn, and “at this juncture,” says Mother 
Smith, “TI left the house, not only terrified at the 
scene, but likewise sick at heart to see the apostasy 
of which Joseph had prophesied was so near at 
hand.” 

In December, 1837, Smith and Rigdon made their 
last appearance in the temple in which they made a 


®Mother Smith gives an account of this disaffection in her Bio- 
graphical Sketches of Joseph Smith, Chapter XLV. 


SETTLEMENT IN OHIO 155 


resolute defense of their case against the various 
charges that had been brought against them. But 
Kirtland was becoming too dangerous a place for 
them. Public indignation was rising against them 
and they both sought safety in flight. On the night 
of January 12, 1838, they escaped on horseback 
and never returned. The temple was sold in 1862 
and in 1873 it passed into the possession of the 
Reorganized Church and is still used by this non- 
polygamous branch of Mormonism. 


4. ENTRANCE OF BRIGHAM YOUNG, MASTER MIND OF 
MORMONISM 


During the settlement in Ohio there quietly en- 
tered into this story a convert who presently proved 
to be the Moses to lead the new religion out of the 
wilderness into its promised land and the architect 
and builder who rescued its wreckage when it was 
rapidly going to pieces and rebuilt it into the solid 
structure that stands to this day. This was Brig- 
ham Young, who from this point on will loom large 
in this history and who will ever stand forth as the 
master mind of Mormonism. Had it not been for 
his practical head and firm hand and business man- 
agement and forceful personality, Joseph Smith’s 
name and cult might have perished with his life in 
his tragic death. 

Brigham Young was born in 1801, four years 
earlier than Smith, and in the same state of Ver- 


156 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


mont, so that they both grew up under similar social 
and religious conditions. Young came of better 
stock than Smith, but in youth he had little school- 
ing and never cared for books and throughout life 
was a man of action and not of thought, especially 
of the speculative kind. He soon became a Yankee 
jack-of-all-trades, though specially skilled in glaz- 
ing and carpentry which stood him in good stead in 
after years. At the age of twenty-one he united 
with the Methodist church and was married at 24, 
and in 1829 he moved to Mendon, N. Y., where his 
father and brother Phineas were living. Phineas 
was already a convert to Smith, and in his brother’s 
house Brigham first saw the Book of Mormon in 
1830, and two years later he was baptized and began 
preaching and made two missionary trips to Can- 
ada. The following year he went to Kirtland where 
he met Smith and joined his fortunes to the cause 
of the prophet with results that either of them could 
have little foreseen or dreamed. 

These two men, Smith and Young, were strangely 
contrasted yet were complementary in personality, 
and each supplied what the other lacked. Dreamer 
and doer met in them and combined with tremendous 
consequences. This contrast and complementary 
character of the two men are strikingly set forth 
by Cannon and Knapp in their book: 


Joseph was a prophet of pronunciamentos. Brigham 
was an apostle of work. Joseph indulged in revelations 
on every commonplace topic. Brigham put forth but one 


SETTLEMENT IN OHIO 157 


revelation in his life. Joseph was sometimes im- 
pressive, sometimes jocular, but he was destitute 
of real seriousness and real humor. Brigham had 
plenty of both. Joseph was a scatterer.  Brig- 
ham was a collector. Joseph turned aside after every- 
thing that crossed his path. Brigham never left his 
appointed trail. Joseph dreamed of being ruler of the 
United States. Brigham made himself czar of a desert 
empire; small, to be sure, but unique among modern com- 
munities—and his own. Both men were necessary to the 
creed they supported. Brigham could not have founded 
a church. Joseph could not have preserved one. Joseph 
and his earlier aids had gathered a thousand planks of 
doctrine. Brigham built these planks into a compact 
house of faith which endures to this day.® 


* Brigham Young and His Mormon Empire, pp. 28-29. 


CHAPTER VIII 
REMOVAL TO MISSOURI 


ISSOURI in the thirties of the last century 
was the West of the time and was in the 
plastic turbulent condition of a new region that was 
attracting adventurous pioneers of various types 
and temperaments. Fiery elements were then being 
fused in the great melting pot of the Mississippi 
Valley. Emotionalism and fanaticism ruled the 
social and political and religious life of the people, 
and short methods and direct action were the ready 
resort in settling practical problems and perils. The 
sparsely settled country and rich soil were a lure 
to immigrants, but the social environment turned out 
to be very unfriendly and unfortunate ground for 
Mormonism to select for its new settlement. 

Smith and his associates early cast their eyes 
westward for the location of their Zion, and in 
1831 four missionaries were sent to Missouri to spy 
out the land, which was described as “a land flowing 
with milk and honey, upon which there shall be no 
curse when the Lord cometh.” ‘Revelations’ came 
thick and fast to Smith in connection with the new 
adventure, which will be found in the Doctrine and 


Covenants, Sections 52-64. Alluring prospects and 
158 


REMOVAL TO MISSOURI 159 


promises were held out, intimating that the new 
land would be given to them as the chosen of the 
Lord. “I will consecrate the riches of the Gen- 
tiles unto my people which are of the house of 
Israel.” “If ye are faithful ye shall assemble your- 
selves together to rejoice upon the land in Missouri, 
which is the land of your inheritance, which is now 
the land of your enemies.” “Behold it is said in 
my laws, or forbidden, to get in debt to thine ene- 
mies. But behold it is not said at any time, that the 
Lord should not take when he pleased, and pay as 
seemeth him good.” ‘Wherefore the land of Zion 
shall not be obtained but by purchase or by blood, 
otherwise there is none inheritance for you.’ These 
repeated intimations that the land might be paid for 
or be taken “by blood” scattered through many 
“revelations” had a sinister sound which had much 
to do with the trouble that followed. 


I. IN JACKSON COUNTY 


The first party of Mormon emigrants, consisting 
of Smith, Rigdon and about thirty elders, reached 
Independence, in Jackson County on the western 
border of the state, in June, 1831, and a “revelation” 
quickly declared that “‘this is the land of promise and 
the place of the City of Zion.” Land was purchased 
and a site was secured for the temple in the center 
of the town which consisted of only a few houses. 
A somewhat theatrical show was made of laying 


160 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


a corner stone for the temple, and then Smith and 
Rigdon returned to Kirtland and started streams 
of the faithful towards the new Zion. They went 
forward so rapidly that in less than two years the 
Mormons numbered more than twelve hundred and 
were about one third of the population of the 
county. 

Suspicion and friction growing into hostility soon 
began to develop between the Gentiles and the Mor- 
mons. The Gentiles resented the manners and 
morals of the Mormons, their claims to divine reve- 
lations and their boast that they were setting up a 
theocracy in which the land was the Lord’s gift to 
them as his peculiar people. This hostility culmi- 
nated in a public meeting at Independence when a 
notice was served upon the Mormons that they must 
leave the county, and with a grim sense of humor 
these rough Westerners closed their address to the 
followers of the new religion with the notice that 
“those who fail to comply with the requisitions be 
referred to those of their brethren who have the 
gifts of divination and of unknown tongues, to in- 
form them of the lot that awaits them.” 

Smith at Kirtland delivered a “revelation” against 
the removal of his “Zion” from Independence and 
declared, ‘Zion shall not be moved out of her 
place.” * The non-Mormons of Jackson County also 
made an offer ‘“‘to pay the Mormons the valuation 


*Mormons claim that this prophecy is still in force and declare 
their intention to build their most splendid temple at this place. 


REMOVAL TO MISSOURI 161 


fixed by the appraisers, with one hundred per cent 
added, within thirty days of the award; or, the 
Jackson County citizens would agree to sell out their 
land in that county to the Mormons on the same 
terms.” The offer was refused by the Mormons, 
who made a counter proposal, which was in turn 
promptly rejected by the county citizens. 

In the meantime mobs were beginning to attack 
the Mormons, the printing house of the Evening and 
Morning Star, the paper they were publishing at 
Independence, was destroyed, and the Mormons 
were forced across the Missouri River into Clay and 
other counties to the north. 

While there was ground in the peculiar claims and 
threats and morals of the Mormons that in some 
degree justified or at least made inevitable their ex- 
pulsion by the people of Jackson County, yet it was 
also attended with much injustice and lawless vio- 
lence and it inflicted pitiable suffering on many of 
them, especially their women and children. 


2. FURTHER TROUBLES IN AND EXPULSION FROM 
MISSOURI 


North of the Missouri the Mormons spread 
through several counties, for a time making their 
headquarters at Liberty, the county seat of Clay, the 
first county north of the river, and then founded the 
town of Far West in the neighboring county of Ray. 
This was early in 1834 and at this time Smith and 


162 . THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


Rigdon gathered at Kirtland “The Army of Zion,” 
a motley assembly of two hundred men acting under 
the authority of a “revelation” declaring that ‘‘the 
redemption of Zion must needs come by power.” 

This ragged company made their way to Missouri, 
but a committee of armed Missourians met them as 
they approached Ray County and warned them 
not to proceed further. This turn of affairs gave 
Smith, who generally knew how to exercise that 
prudence that is the better part of valor, a pause and 
he sent word to the Missourians that “we have con- 
cluded that our company shall be immediately dis- 
persed.” His surrender was also bolstered up and 
sanctioned by the always inevitable and convenient 
“revelation” that the Lord did not “require at their 
hands to fight the battles of Zion.” These many 
self-contradictory revelations of the prophet follow- 
ing in rapid succession and veering around with 
every change in the political situation or circum- 
stance of the hour, like a weathercock in the wind, 
never seemed to perplex or surprise the logical sense 
or the common sense of his followers. 

In 1838 Smith appeared at Far West and found 
his church in a state of dissension. The High Coun- 
cil promptly expelled Elder Brown, Lyman E. John- 
son, Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer, the 
latter two being two of the three witnesses who 
testified to the genuineness of ‘‘the plates.” The 
expulsion of these high officials was made on various 
grounds, such as uttering counterfeit money and 


REMOVAL TO MISSOURI 163 


accusing the prophet of adultery, and Smith 
promptly produced a “‘revelation”’ filling their places 
with others. Thomas B. Marsh, President of the 
Twelve, and Orson B. Pratt, one of the original 
Apostles, at this time withdrew from the church and 
subsequently gave damaging testimony against it. 

On July 4, the corner stone of a temple at Far 
West was laid with a procession and speeches and 
much spectacular ceremony. Sidney Rigdon was 
the orator of the day and delivered an address 
breathing threats in fiery language that greatly 
alarmed the non-Mormons, and had much to do 
with kindling the fires of persecution against their 
undesirable neighbors. Rigdon warned these non- 
Mormons that the “mob that comes on us to dis- 
turb us, it shall be between us and them a war of 
extermination ; for we will follow them until the last 
drop of their blood is spilled or else they will have 
to exterminate us, for we will carry the seat of war 
to their own houses and their own families, and one 
party or the other shall be utterly destroyed.” ? 

At Far West also was organized ‘The Danites,” 
who became practically a band of murderers whose 
deeds were subsequently written in blood on some 
of the darkest pages of the history of Mormonism 
or of any human or inhuman society masquerading 


*Stenhouse, Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 78. This oration is known 
as “Sidney’s Salt Sermon,’ from its text, Matthew 5:13. Brigham 
Young, during the trial of Rigdon some years afterward, said: 
“Filder Rigdon was the prime cause of our troubles in Missouri, 
by his Fourth-of-July oration.” Stenhouse, p. 79. 


164 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


in the name of religion. The Danite Oath as given 
by Bennett bound each member to “uphold the Presi- 
dency, right or wrong; and that I will ever conceal, 
and never reveal, the secret purpose of this society, 
called Daughters of Zion.* Should I ever do the 
same, I hold my life as the forfeiture, in a caldron 
of boiling oil.” * We shall hear of the terrible do- 
ings of this murderous band hereafter. 

At this time Smith produced a “‘revelation” estab- 
lishing the tithing system that became and still is 
one of the strongholds of this cult. It requires all 
members of the church to put all their surplus prop- 
erty “into the hands of the Bishop,” and after that 
“those who have thus tithed shall pay one tenth of 
all interest annually; this shall be a standing rule 
forever.” By this rule the income of the church by 
1878 was estimated at $1,000,000 a year, and during 
Brigham Young’s administration the total receipts 
were $13,000,000.” 

The course of growing friction and trouble be- 
tween the Mormons and their neighbors in Jackson 
County was repeated in Clay and Ray and other 
counties. Public meetings were held at which the 
Mormons were denounced as enemies on account of 
their claims and threats and practices and it was 
declared that they must leave the state. In time 
armed bands of both parties were riding around 

> A name subsequently changed to Danites. 
*For an extended extract from this address, see Gibbs, Lights 


and Shadows of Mormonism, p. 8o. 
*Linn, Story, p. 193. 


REMOVAL TO MISSOURI 165 


plundering and burning and killing and a state of 
civil war and anarchy prevailed. 

Governor Boggs authorized General John B. 
Clark to raise four hundred mounted militia and 
declared to him in a letter that “The Mormons must 
be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or 
driven from the state of necessity for the public 
peace—their outrages are beyond description.” This 
language of the Governor cannot be justified and 
added to the flames of the situation, but it shows 
how desperate the situation was growing. 

The militia approached Far West and demanded 
that Smith and Rigdon and several other leaders 
should be surrendered and this was done and later 
they were given a hearing. Testimony as to the 
purposes of the Mormons was given, the most dam- 
aging by Mormons or ex-Mormons themselves. 
Thomas B. Marsh, one of the Twelve Apostles who, 
as we have seen, had withdrawn from the church, 
made an affidavit, as follows: 

The plan of said Smith, the Prophet, is to take this 
state; and he professes to his people to intend taking the 
United States and ultimately the whole world. The 
Prophet inculcates the notion, and it is believed by every 
true Mormon, that Smith’s prophecies are superior to 
the law of the land. I have heard the prophet say that 
he would yet tread down his enemies, and walk over their 
dead bodies; that, if he was let alone, he would be a sec- 
ond Mohammed to this generation, and that ne would 


make it one gore of blood from the Rocky Mountains to 
the Atlantic Ocean.® 


*[bid., p. 213. 


166 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


The prisoners were removed from one county to 
another and finally in some way were permitted to 
escape, one charge supported by an officer of the 
militia being that Smith gave the sheriff and his 
guards $1,100 to allow them to slip off. Smith was 
indicted for “murder, treason, burglary, arson, lar- 
ceny, theft, and stealing,’ and after his escape into 
Illinois the authorities of Missouri tried for years 
to secure his extradition, but he never returned to 
the state. 

While these arrests and hearings were going on, 
mob law continued to be inflicted on the Mormons 
and they were harassed from county to county east- 
ward until they reached the Mississippi and, stripped 
of most of their property, they crossed the river into 
Illinois and the chapter of their troubled days in 
Missouri was closed. 


CHAPTER IX 
SETTLEMENT IN ILLINOIS 


T would be hard to find on the pages of history 

a seemingly more defeated and disconsolate band 
of people than the various groups of Mormons that 
came fleeing and straggling across the Mississippi 
into Quincy, Ill., in the spring of 1839. However 
intolerable was their presence with their strange 
and abhorrent doctrines and deeds in an American 
commonwealth, yet their hard treatment and suffer- 
ings excite our pity if not our sympathy. Yet there 
were heroic spirits among them and their leaders 
were unbeaten. Among these was Joseph Smith, 
the Prophet, himself, who never abated his claims 
or flinched in the face of his enemies, but was as 
resolute as ever in his plans and purposes. In 
Quincy, also, awaiting the refugees was Brigham 
Young, the master spirit of Mormonism, who now 
began to push his aggressive personality into promi- 
nence and proved to be the Moses of these bitter 
days. 

Illinois, like Missouri, was little advanced beyond 
a border state and was easily swept by violent emo- 
tion and direct action, and in this same decade Owen 


Lovejoy, for publishing an abolition newspaper at 
167 


168 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


Alton, had his printing plant destroyed and was him- 
self murdered by a mob. The political parties in 
the state at this time were about equally balanced 
between the Democrats and the Whigs, and the 
Mormon vote arrived in time to play an important 
part in the course of these events. 

Both parties in turn made a bid for Mormon 
support. The Democratic Association of Quincy, 
acting on the report of a committee, condemned the 
treatment of the Mormons in Missouri and in vari- 
ous ways the newcomers were given a welcome. 
Even Governor Carlin and his wife were declared 
by Rigdon in a letter to “enter with all the enthusi- 
asm of their nature” into a plan to have Congress 
investigate the rough usage of the Mormons in 
Missouri. 


I. A MORMON TOWN RISES ON THE RIVER 


The Mormon leaders cast about for a settlement in 
the state and various proposals to buy land and 
locate were considered, but finally choice fell on the 
small town of Commerce about fifty miles north of 
Quincy on the Mississippi. About eight hundred 
acres of land were bought for $67,000, and then 
Smith produced the inevitable “revelation” justify- 
ing the removal of “Zion” from Jackson County, 
whence an equally inspired “revelation” had declared 
it should never be removed, to the new location, 
which was now named Nauvoo, a name which was 


SETTLEMENT IN. ILLINOIS 169 


declared to be of Hebrew origin, meaning “‘a beauti- 
ful place.” * The town now rose with surprising 
rapidity in population and prestige. It was laid 
out in blocks 180 by 200 feet along a river frontage 
of three miles, and streams of emigrants were 
started flowing towards it from the East and from 
Europe. The Times and Seasons, published in 
Nauvoo from 1839 to 1845, claimed for it a popula- 
tion of 15,000, with two steam mills and other manu- 
facturing concerns. An English traveler of the time 
described it as a “city of great dimensions, laid out 
in beautiful order; the streets are wide and cross 
each other at right angles, which will add greatly 
to its order and magnificence when finished.” The 
Mormons have been marvelous builders, and wher- 
ever they settle a substantial town or splendid 
city rapidly rises, the supreme example and achieve- 
ment being Salt Lake City itself. 

A temple was always a primary and central con- 
sideration in founding a new Mormon town. A 
Dr. Galland, who had become interested in the Mor- 
mon religion, addressed one of their elders in a let- 
ter in which he outlined a plan for a temple.’ “The 
project of establishing extraordinary religious doc- 
trines,” he said, “being magnificent in its character,”’ 
calls for “preparations commensurate with the plan,” 
and he suggested ‘“‘a temple that for size, proportions 
and style shall attract, surprise and dazzle all behold- 


*Smith had a fancy for inventing learned etymologies which were 
wholly fictitious. 
2 Mackay’s The Mormons, quoted by Linn, p. 227. 


170 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


99 66 


ers,” “unique externally, and in the interior peculiar, 
imposing and grand.” These suggestions caught 
the ambition of Smith and he forthwith produced a 
“revelation” directing that a temple should be built 
and ordering all the Saints to come to Nauvoo “‘with 
all your gold, and your silver, and your precious 
stones,” together with a long list of enumerated pos- 
sessions. The building measured 83 by 128 feet 
and was 60 feet high with a spire planned to rise 
100 feet higher. Commenced on April 6, 1841, its 
capstone was laid on May 24, 1845, after the death 
of Smith, and its dedication took place on May 1, 
1846. 

The portico of the temple was supported by thirty 
stone pilasters costing $30,000 each, and under the 
tower ran in golden letters the words, ‘““The House 
of the Lord, built by the Church of Latter-Day 
Saints.” The Mormons estimated the cost at 
$1,000,000. The magnificent building wholly dis- 
appeared with the decadence of the town after the 
expulsion of the Mormons and its site is now occu- 
pied in the small town of 1,300 inhabitants by two 
modern buildings. 

By reason of the desire of both political parties 
to keep on good terms with people who had votes 
with growing political influence, the Mormon lead- 
ers were able to obtain from the state legislature a 
city charter for Nauvoo granting it extraordinary 
powers. The government consisted of a mayor, 
four aldermen and nine councilors with authority 


SETTLEMENT IN-ILLINOIS 171 


to pass any ordinances not in conflict with the state 
and federal constitutions and with the right to issue 
writs of habeas corpus. The town was thus in a 
large degree a political entity independent of the 
state and even of the national government. Further 
and more extraordinary still, it had authority to 
maintain a military force known as the Nauvoo Le- 
gion, and a general order signed by Smith declared 
that ‘The officers and privates belonging to the 
Legion are exempt from all military duty not re- 
quired by the legally constituted authorities thereof ; 
they are therefore expressly inhibited from per- 
forming any military service not ordered by the gen- 
eral officers, or directed by the court martial.” Smith 
himself was commander-in-chief of the Legion and 
on state occasions appeared in a uniform more gor- 
geous than any Napoleon ever wore in all his glory. 

This Legion was in line with the general Mor- 
mon claim to be a supreme political organization, 
which has been frequently officially asserted by Mor- 
mon leaders. Apostle Orson Pratt declared that all 
other governments “are in direct rebellion against 
the Kingdom of God,” and Joseph F. Smith, Presi- 
dent of the church, declared in 1896: ‘The fact of 
the matter is, when a man says, ‘You can direct me 
spiritually but not temporally,’ he lies in the presence 


of God; that is, if he has got intelligence enough to 
know what he is talking about.” * 


Such an anomaly in an American commonwealth 
* Gibbs, Lights and Shadows, pp. 108-109. 


172 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


as Nauvoo with its autocratic charter and military 
Legion was justly termed by Governor Ford as “a 
government within a government; a legislature to 
pass ordinances at war with the laws of the state; 
courts to execute them with but little dependence 
upon the constitutional judiciary, and a military 
force at their own command.” These claims backed 
up by a show of military force had much to do with 
the hostility of the citizens of Illinois against the 
Mormons and precipitated the final tragedy. 


2. SMITH ENTERS NATIONAL POLITICS 


In the Times and Seasons of October 1, 1843, 
appeared an editorial entitled, ““Who shall be our 
next President?” advocating the selection of a can- 
didate who would do justice to the Mormons, espe- 
cially in the matter of their grievances. Smith wrote 
letters to Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, who 
were the leading Whig and Democratic candidates, 
asking them what would be their “rule of action 
relative to us as a people should fortune favor your 
ascendancy to the chief magistracy?” The replies 
simply enraged Smith, who was now beginning to 
swell with a sense of his political importance and to 
take himself seriously as a probable candidate him- 
self. Clay replied that if elected to the office, “I 
must go into it free and unfettered, with no guaran- 
tees but such as are to be drawn from my whole 
life, character and conduct,” and Calhoun made a 


SETTLEMENT IN ILLINOIS 173 


similar declaration. To both of these men Smith 
replied in terms of personal abuse and threats of 
divine wrath. 

His next step was to issue a long address in which 
he outlined his own policies, including such remedies 
for evils as a national bank whose “officers shall be 
elected yearly by the people, with wages of $2 a day 
for services,” a proposal to “send every lawyer, as 
soon as he repents and obeys the ordinances of 
heaven, to preach the Gospel to the destitute, without 
purse or scrip,’ and other equally preposterous po- 
litical panaceas. 

In due time another editorial appeared in Times 
and Seasons, answering the question, “Whom shall 
the Mormons support for President?” with the 
reply, “General Joseph Smith. A man of sterling 
worth and integrity, and of enlarged views; a man 
who has raised himself from the humblest walks in 
life to stand at the head of a large, intelligent, re- 
spectable and increasing society, . . . and whose 
experience has rendered him every way adequate 
to the onerous duty.” 

A propaganda was now started to promote 
Smith’s candidacy throughout the country. Two or 
three thousand speakers, it was claimed, took the 
field, and meetings were held north and south. A 
state convention was held in Boston, which was dis- 
turbed by rowdies and then adjourned to Bunker 
Hill, but Smith’s death had already occurred though 
the news of it had not yet reached that city. 


174 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


3. THE TRAGEDY AT NAUVOO 


Smith’s troubles both private and public were al- 
ready thickening upon him in Nauvoo. Polygamy 
as a doctrine and practice, the introduction and his- 
tory of which among the Mormons will be taken up 
in a later chapter in this book, was assuming the 
proportions of a public scandal, and Smith himself 
was charged with grave immorality.* 

Some members of the Mormon Church at Nauvoo 
seceded from it on the ground of opposition to its 
polygamy and started a newspaper called the E-x- 
positor in which they voiced their views and opposi- 
tion. Smith promptly used his authority to suppress 
the paper and issued an order to the commander of 
the Legion “to remove the printing establishment of 
the Nauvoo Expositor,’ with the result that the off- 
cer reported that “The within-named press and type 
is destroyed and pied according to order on this 1oth 
day of June, 1844.” The publishers of the Ex- 
posttor fled to Carthage, the county seat of Hancock 
County, where they sued out a writ for the arrest 
of Smith. When brought before the Municipal 
Court Smith was quickly discharged and then he is- 
sued a “proclamation” in which he said that “Our 
city is infested with a set of blacklegs, counterfeiters 
and debauchees and that the proprietors of this press 
were of that class,” and closed by warning “‘the law- 


*For details see Linn, Story, pp. 270-271. 


SETTLEMENT IN ILLINOIS 175 


less not to be precipitate in any interference in our 
affairs, for as sure as there is a god in Israel we 
shall ride triumphant over all oppression.” 

This: high-handed procedure aroused the non- 
Mormon citizens of the county as they now realized, 
as did the people of Missouri, that they had an alien 
and intolerable element in their American democ- 
racy. At Warsaw, eighteen miles down the river, a 
public meeting was held at which it was “Resolved, 
that the time, in our opinion, has arrived when the 
adherents of Smith, as a body, should be driven from 
the surrounding settlements into Nauvoo: that the 
Prophet and his miscreant adherents should then be 
demanded at their hands, and, if not surrendered, 
a war of extermination should be waged, to the en- 
tire destruction, if necessary for our protection, of 
his adherents.” 

Armed forces began forming and Governor Ford 
advised Smith and his associates to surrender, prom- 
ising to protect them. Joseph Smith and his brother 
Hyrum and John Taylor gave themselves up and 
were taken to Carthage, where they were placed in 
the county jail. The governor chose the Carthage 
Grays as their guard, an unfortunate selection, as 
these men, being citizens of Hancock County, were 
known to be specially hostile to the Mormons. The 
three prisoners were confined in a room on the sec- 
ond floor of the jail and on the morning of June 17, 
1844, members of the militia forced their way up 
the stairs and through the door and began firing, 


176 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


Hyrum was the first to fall dead, and Joseph in the 
act of leaping out the window was struck by two 
bullets and exclaiming, ‘““O Lord, my God,” he fell to 
the ground below and was either dead when he fell 
or, as some accounts say, was quickly despatched 
with other shots. Taylor, though wounded, recov- 
ered and later become President of the church. 

The news of the assassination created a panic of 
consternation and sorrow among the Mormons, and 
the next day the bodies of the Smith brothers were 
brought to Nauvoo and a great funeral conducted 
with solemn pomp was held. Though the bodies 
were supposed to be in the coffins carried to the 
grave, it has since been disclosed they were not in 
the caskets but were clandestinely buried in a secret 
spot on the banks of the Mississippi, where they still 
repose in unmarked graves. 

Whatever alleviation of this tragic event may be 
found in the circumstances out of which it grew in 
the rough customs and ready resort to direct action 
of the time, the accumulated hostility and resent- 
ment against the Mormons on the ground of their 
claims of divine revelations sanctioning their polyg- 
amous preaching and practice and their political 
usurpation, yet the killing of Joseph Smith was a 
cold-blooded murder. ‘The militia ostensibly set to 
guard him themselves became a lawless mob and the 
governor failed to provide the protection he had 
promised, and thereby this crime remains as an ugly 
blot on the State of Illinois. 


SETTLEMENT IN ILLINOIS 177 


And further, the opponents of Mormonism did 
the greatest damage to their own cause and gave a 
powerful impulse to the religious and social system 
they hated by this act. Persecution has ever been 
a powerful propagandist and has helped many a 
wrong as well as many a right cause. The murder 
of the Prophet of Mormonism deepened and intensi- 
fied the faith and devotion of his followers as no 
other event could have done, and to this day Car- 
thage is a Calvary in their cult. It is an abiding fact 
and force in their faith, and the blood of this 
Prophet is the seed of his church. 


4. CHARACTER OF JOSEPH SMITH 


Joseph Smith was a complex and strange com- 
pound of incongruous elements. He sprang from a 
morbid, diseased and superstitious ancestry and out 
of a social soil in which all kinds of psychological 
and religious vagaries and cults, such as animal 
magnetism, clairvoyance, hypnotism, spiritualism, 
faith healing, and crass religious doctrines and 
heated emotional revivals, grew rapidly and rank. 
His ill-balanced, highly excitable brain was easily 
infected and inflamed with these flying sparks or 
floating disease germs in the air, and he caught most 
of the mental and emotional disorders of his day. 

The line between fact and fancy in his mind was 
easily blurred, and he no doubt came to believe many 
of the imaginings and obsessions that seized and 


178 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


moved him. His power of hypnotizing others al- 
most equally hypnotized himself and he was the dupe 
of his own deceptions and the victim of his own 
visions. 

He could not have been self-deceived as to the 
true nature of his gold plates and their alleged reve- 
lations, and yet in time the success of his deceptions 
may have deluded himself. Nothing succeeds like 
success even with false prophets, and the lying 
prophet may come to believe in the genuineness of 
his own fraudulent pretensions. That the Mormon 
Bible is fraudulent is plainly stamped upon all its 
pages, and yet its author may have been led by its 
wide acceptance to believe in it himself. What 
others think of him is apt to affect what a man thinks 
of himself, and when others acclaim him an inspired 
genius he is likely to think they are right and put the 
same estimate upon himself. It is not strange if 
Joseph Smith yielded to this flattering psychology. 

The egoism of Smith, budding in his ill-balanced 
brain in his boyhood and fed by his family, grew 
into an all-absorbing mania. He saw nothing ridic- 
ulous but only his proper place and destiny in aspir- 
ing to the presidency of the United States, and 
dressed in a gorgeous, gold-laced uniform with 
plumed hat and glittering sword as commander of 
the Nauvoo Legion, he felt himself another Napoleon 
or Alexander the Great. He declared that he would 
“become the second Mohammed of this generation,” 
and averred that Mormonism would some day rule 


SETTLEMENT IN: ILLINOIS 179 


the world. As an inspired prophet he stood on 
equal heights with Moses and Isaiah and his revela- 
tions constituted the final Bible of humanity. He 
would stride the ages as the supreme religious 
Prophet and political Colossus of the world and over- 
top all the centuries. He dreamed himself a Caesar, 
crossing every Rubicon, and as Mohammed has 
struck the Cross from the Eastern world, so would 
he strike the Crescent from the modern world and 
supersede all other religions with his own “revela- 
tions.” He did not, however, rise to the height of 
vanity and blasphemy where he put himself beside 
or above Christ. 

No crisis or imminent disaster in his career could 
give him pause or beget in him a suspicion of his 
own limitations and follies. During his final legal 
difficulties he boasted, “I am a big lawyer, I com- 
prehend heaven, earth and hell.” 

The Prophet’s nature was compounded of explo- 
sive passions. He was specially subject to anger 
and trivial provocations would inflame him to the 
point of the most violent outbursts. His sense of 
his own importance and apparent power could brook 
no interference with his will, and any intrusion upon 
his real or imaginary rights would throw him into 
a rage. “Before I will be dragged away again 
among my enemies for trial I will spill the last drop 
of blood in my veins and will see all my enemies in 
hell.” Sexuality was strongly marked in him, and 
his vanity was swollen to the limit of bursting. The 


180 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


truth was not on his tongue or pen when untruth 
served him better. Sincere he must have been at 
times, but he was deeply veined with inveracity and 
when it fitted his purpose he was an adept at wear- 
ing the mask of hypocrisy. 

One or two expert opinions of his character may 
here be given. Josiah F. Gibbs, an ex-Mormon and 
former missionary of the church whose book bears 
the marks of judicial temperament and just judg- 
ment, says: 


As a psychological subject he has baffled the ablest 
minds. ‘The activity of his mind was phenomenal, and 
must have been the product of abnormal nervous energy. 
And in order to have deceived himself in the matter of 
the revelations, his nervous force, at times, must have 
been such as to produce temporary hallucinations. The 
vividness and realism of the products of his imagination 
were such as to convince him that they were supernatural. 
Those delusions were intensified by his natural and ac- 
quired egotism which was one of his most glaring defects 
of character. The grandiloquent verbiage of many of 
his speeches, writings and revelations, was such as would 
have caused “Bombastus Furioso”’ to turn green with 
envy.” 


Professor I. Woodbridge Riley, in his psychologi- 
cal study of Joseph Smith, thus states his general 
conclusion: 


The words and deeds of Joseph Smith in his last days 
offer ground for the belief that he was, at times, actually 
demented. If the case be brought into harmony with his 


* Lights and Shadows, p. 128. 


SETTLEMENT IN ILLINOIS 181 


previous pathological experiences—color sensations, dizzi- 
ness, vacuity, coma and bodily bruises—the prophet’s 
final activities suggest epileptic insanity. In general such 
a patient shows marked narrowness of mental horizon, 
with limited ideation and imperfect associations of ideas. 
In conversation and writing there is a strong tendency to 
detail and circumstantiality. The vocabulary consists 
largely of set phrases, platitudes and passages from the 
Bible. These symptoms may be deemed too inclusive to 
be conclusive. There are to be added more particular 
marks suggesting a tendency to pronounced mental aber- 
ration. Such are the facts that the epileptic insane betray 
an abnormal prominence of the self: that the most sense- 
less and fantastic schemes are devised in which the 
patients do not fully recognize the incongruity between 
their grandiose plans and their limited ability; finally, that 
the judgment is impaired in proportion to the amount of 
mental deterioration. How far such deterioration ex- 
tended in the case of Joseph Smith the reader must de- 
cide for himself.® 


Yet over against the defects of heredity and false 
claims and scandals of his life, Joseph Smith stands 
upon the pages of history as a figure that must be 
reckoned with. He has not passed but is still on 
the stage and has grown in influence with the more 
than three quarters of a century that have elapsed 
since his tragical death. The bullet that killed him 
did not kill his Bible or his church. He founded an 
institution that is casting a long and broadening 
shadow and it looms larger with the years. An in- 
creasing multitude of followers are his devoted ad- 
herents and are rooting their religion in many of 


* The Founder of Mormonism; a Psychological Study, pp. 437-438. 


182 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


our states and are throwing their branches out over 
the world. Ridicule does not reduce the proportions 
of his personality and of his achievements. His ab- 
surdities cannot assign him to oblivion. It is true 
that better balanced and abler men have seized his 
peculiar institution and pushed it to success, but it 
was his spirit that initiated it and still inspires it. 
History plays strange tricks in our human world, 
and one of the strangest of these is Joseph Smith. 


5. LAST DAYS AT NAUVOO 


At the time of the death of Smith, some of the 
most important leaders of the church were absent on 
various missions, Brigham Young himself being off 
electioneering for Smith as a candidate for President 
in New Hampshire. These leaders now quickly as- 
sembled at Nauvoo to consider what was to be done, 
now that the Prophet was slain. Joseph and Hyrum 
Smith and Sidney Rigdon constituted the First 
Presidency, and now the question was, Who was to 
succeed to the chief office? Only Rigdon remained 
of the First Presidency and he had withdrawn from 
Nauvoo and was residing with his daughter in Pitts- 
burgh, Pa. Brigham Young, however, was at the 
head of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and he 
saw that his hour was now come. 

Rigdon appeared at Nauvoo and took steps to 
assert his own succession to the head of the Presi- — 
dency, chiefly in the form of senseless ravings that 


SETTLEMENT IN ILLINOIS 183 


were supposed to be indications of his power to re- 
ceive “revelations.” Young, however, cut short his 
inspired career by seeing that he was charged with 
determining to “rule or ruin the church,” and forth- 
with he was expelled from it. This strange man, 
the ex-Baptist preacher who knew more than any 
other man, with the possible exception of Joseph 
Smith himself, of the real origin of the Mormon 
Bible, returned to Pittsburgh and attempted to start 
a movement of his own, but soon retired to live with 
a son-in-law at Friendship, New York, where he 
died on July 14, 1876, carrying his secret to his 
grave. 

Young now managed the church as the head of 
the Twelve, judiciously keeping the matter of the 
Presidency in the background, until on December 
5, 1847, after the expulsion from Nauvoo while the 
Mormons were temporarily located at Winter Quar- 
ters in Iowa, Young was made President and H. C. 
Kimball and William Richards were made his Coun- 
cilors, the three constituting the First Presidency. 
Thus this masterful man fastened his grip upon the 
Mormon church and never relaxed it until death 
broke it. 

The death of Smith did not allay the hostility be- 
tween the Mormons and the Gentiles, but this was 
ageravated during the following winter. Charges 
of stealings enraged the people, and they visited re- 
taliation upon the Mormons in the form of burnings 
and other depredations. 


184 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


Internal troubles and quarrels also grew in viru- 
lence in the church. William Smith, brother of Jo- 
seph and Hyrum, returned to Nauvoo from the East 
and was made Patriarch, but was soon “cut off and 
left in the hands of God.” Whereupon he issued an 
eight-page statement in the Warsaw Signal in which 
he expressed his views of the situation in general 
and of Brigham Young in particular. “It is my 
firm and sincere conviction,” he said, ‘‘that, since 
the murder of my two brothers, usurpation, and 
anarchy, and spiritual wickedness in high places 
have crept into the church, with the cognizance and 
acquiescence of those whose solemn duty it was to 
gcuardedly watch against such a state of things. 
Under the reign of one whom I may call Pontius 
Pilate, under the reign, I say, of this Brigham 
Young, no greater tyrant ever existed since the days 
of Nero.” 

Trouble and disorder grew until a military force 
of the state was assembled, and the Mormons were 
notified that they “must go.” Repeated negotia- 
tions finally resulted in an agreement by which they 
were to leave Illinois. This decision was announced 
in the Millennial Star of December 1, 1845, in the 
following language: “The End of American Lib- 
erty. The following official corespondence shows 
that this government has given thirty thousand 
American citizens the choice of death or banishment 
beyond the Rocky Mountains. Of these two evils 


SETTLEMENT IN ILLINOIS 185 


they have chosen the least. What boasted liberty! 
What an honor to American character !” 

The process of evacuating Nauvoo and starting 
for the distant West took upwards of a year and was 
attended with much social disorder and hardship. 
The Mormons disposed of their property as best 
they could and the next spring their loaded wagons 
began crossing the Mississippi on ferryboats and 
assmbling on the Iowa side, where they pitched 
their temporary tents. There were still clashes 
between the Mormons and the Gentiles who were 
impatient with the slow movement of things, and 
there was a final “Mormon War” in September 
which was terminated with another agreement of 
the Mormons to surrender Nauvoo, deliver up their 
arms and “leave the state, or disperse, as soon as 
they cross the river.” By the end of September, 
1846, the last of these objectionable people were out 
of Illinois and to the number of about 17,000 they 
were moving across the Mississippi River into Iowa. 


CHAPTER X 
BEGINNINGS OF MORMON POLYGAMY 


HE deepest distinctive feature of Mormonism 
is its doctrine and practice of polygamy, 
and more than any other fact in its system and his- 
tory has this given offense and been the cause of its 
troubles. Monogamy is and has been a foundation 
stone in Christian civilization for more than twenty 
centuries and stands today unshaken, and any doc- 
trine that undermines or threatens it imperils the 
whole structure and will arouse against it the deeply- 
rooted instincts and organized opposition of 
Christendom. 

Polygamy is the chief rock of offense and greatest 
menace of Mormonism and as long as this doctrine 
remains in its creed and the right to practice it is 
asserted, however the practice of it may be tempo- 
rarily held in obeyance by the hand of law, distrust 
of the Church of Latter-Day Saints will persist. 


I. EARLY MORMON TEACHING 


Rumors of irregular sex relations early began to 
circulate in connection with the Mormons at Kirt- 


land, Ohio. Joseph Smith was accused of such in- 
186 


BEGINNINGS OF MORMON POLYGAMY _ 187 


dulgences, and numerous affidavits are on record 
declaring that he entered into polygamous relations 
as early as 1841 and by 1843 had formed four other 
such marriages. These rumors are borne out by 
the fact that in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, 
published in Kirtland in 1835, there is a Section 
(101) containing this declaration: “Inasmuch as 
this Church of Christ has been reproached with the 
crime of fornication and polygamy, we declare that 
we believe that one man should have one wife, and 
the one woman one husband, except in case of 
death, when either is at liberty to marry again.” 
This statement admits the fact of the charges and 
seeks to counteract them. 

The early official Mormon teaching on the subject 
of polygamy opposed the doctrine and practice and 
denounced it. We quote again and more fully the 
declarations of the Mormon Bible as found in the 
Book of Jacob, 2:24-28, as follows: 


Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and 
concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith 
the Lord; wherefore, thus saith the Lord, I have led this 
people forth out of the land of Jerusalem, by the power of 
mine arm, that I might raise up unto me a righteous 
branch from the fruit of the loins of Joseph. 

Wherefore, I, the Lord God, will not suffer that this 
people shall do like unto them of old. Wherefore my 
brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the Lord; 
for there shall not any man among you have save it be 
one wife; and concubines he shall have none; for I, the 


* Gibbs, Lights and Shadows, pp. 98-102. 


188 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


Lord God, delighteth in the chastity of women. And 
whoredoms are an abomination before me; thus saith the 
Lord of hosts. 


To the same effect were some of Smith’s “revela- 
tions” in Kirtland. In one dated February 9, 1831, 
it was commanded (Sec. 42), “Thou shalt love 
thy wife with all thy heart, and shalt cleave unto her 
and none else; and he that looketh upon a woman to 
lust after her shall deny the faith, and shall not have 
the spirit, and if he repents not he shall be cast out.” 
In another, dated in March (Sec. 49), it was 
declared, “Wherefore it is lawful that he should 
have one wife, and they twain shall be one flesh, 
and all this that the earth might answer to the et 
of its creation.” 

These views were expressed at Kirtland at a time 
when Smith was under the influence of Sidney Rig- 
don, who always sternly opposed polygamy, and may 
in some degree be attributed to his influence. 

Later at Nauvoo in 1844 Joseph and Hyrum 
Smith issued a statement signed with their names in 
which they declared: 


As we have been lately credibly informed that an Elder 
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, by 
the name of Hirum Brown, has been preaching polygamy 
and other false and corrupting doctrines, in the county of 
Lapeer, State of Michigan, this is to notify him, and the 
church in general, that he is cut off from the church for 
his iniquity, and he is further notified to appear at the 


BEGINNINGS OF MORMON POLYGAMY _ 189 


special conference on the 6th of April next, to make an- 
swer to these charges.” 


2. LATER OFFICIAL TEACHING 


Yet the official teaching of the church on the sub- 
ject of polygamy is unequivocal and undenied and 
so stands to this day. Elder B. H. Roberts is one 
of the standard authorities of the Mormons and 
he gives the following account of the origin of the 
doctrine: 


The revelation making known this marriage doctrine 
came about in this way: First, it should be stated—and 
it is evident from the written revelation itself, which 
bears the date of July 12th, 1843—that the doctrine was 
revealed and the practice of it began before the partial 
revelation now in the Doctrine and Covenants was writ- 
ten. As early as 1831, the rightfulness of plurality of 
- wives under certain conditions was made known to Joseph 
Smith. In the latter part of the year, especially from 
November, 1831, and through the early months of 1832, 
the Prophet with Sidney Rigdon as his assistant was 
earnestly engaged at Hirum, a village in Portage County, 
near Kirtland, Ohio, in translating the Jewish scripture. 
It must have been while engaged in that work that the 
evident approval of God to the plural marriage system 
of the ancient patriarchs attracted the Prophet’s attention 
and led him to make those inquiries of the Lord to which 
the opening paragraphs of the written revelation refer.® 


*It will be noted that the date of this hypocritical letter is a year 
and more after Smith’s “revelation”. on the subject of polygamy. 
. The rising tide of indignation against the Mormons because of their 
polygamous teaching and practice was the cause of: this pretended 
repudiation of it. 

* Rise and Fall of Nauvoo, p. 114. 


190 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


Roberts further says that while the doctrine thus 
revealed was not made known to the world at the 
time, yet “Joseph did make known what had been 
revealed to him to a few trusted friends, among 
them were Oliver Cowdery and Lyman E. Johnson, 
the latter confiding the matter to Orson Pratt, his 
missionary companion.” 

There is abundant evidence that not only Smith 
practiced polygamy at Nauvoo, but that others did 
also at the same time and place. John D. Lee, a 
missionary of the faith and afterwards notorious in 
the part he played, in his Mormonism Unveiled 
gives a complete record of his nineteen plural wives, 
the first plural marriage taking place at Nauvoo in 
1845 and the last one at Salt Lake City.‘ 

The official “revelation” of Smith on “celestial 
marriage” is Section 132 in the modern editions of 
the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. It was dic- 
tated to William Clayton who wrote it down and it 
was prepared with special reference to Smith’s wife, 
who was restless at his irregular relations. The 
long jumble of words bears out this statement as to 
the mode of its preparation. As printed by Sten- 
house ° it consists of 25 paragraphs and fills six 
large pages of fine type. It is headed, ‘‘Revelation 
on the Eternity of the Marriage Covenant, includ- 
ing Plurality of Wives. Given through Joseph, the 


* The record is given by Linn, Story, p. 277. 
°The Rocky Mountain Saints, pp. 176-182. 


BEGINNINGS OF MORMON POLYGAMY 191 


Seer, in Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, July 12, 
1843.” Space will permit only a few extracts, 
which are all that are essential to this story. 


Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you, my servant Joseph, 
that inasmuch as you have inquired of my hand, to know 
and understand wherein I, the Lord, justified my servants 
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; as also Moses, David and 
Solomon, my servants, as touching the principle and 
doctrine of their having many wives and concubines: 

Behold! and lo, I am the Lord thy God, and will answer 
thee as touching this matter: 

Therefore, prepare thy heart to receive and obey the 
instructions which I am about to give unto you; for all 
those who have this law revealed unto them must obey the 
same ; 

For behold! I reveal unto you a new and everlasting 
covenant; and if ye abide not that covenant, then are ye 
damned; for no one can reject this covenant, and be per- 
mitted to enter into my glory. 

And let mine handmaid, Emma Smith, Joseph’s wife, 
receive all those that have been given unto my servant 
Joseph, and who are virtuous and pure before me; and 
those that are not pure, and have said they were pure, 
shall be destroyed, saith the Lord God. 

And again, as pertaining to the law of the priesthood, 
if any man espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse another, 
and the first give her consent; and if he espouse the sec- 
ond, and they are virgins, and have vowed to no other 
- man, then is he justified; he cannot commit adultery, for 
they are given unto him; for he cannot commit adultery 
with that which belongeth unto him and to no one 
else. 

And now, as pertaining to this law, verily, verily I 
say unto you, I will reveal more unto you hereafter; 
therefore, let this suffice for the present. Behold, l-am 
Alpha and Omega. Amen. 


192 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


While this “revelation” is dated July 12, 1843, yet 
it was not published to the church until August 28, 
1852, when it was announced at a Church Confer- 
ence at Salt Lake City. In connection with the 
reading of ‘the revelation Orson Pratt spoke at 
length on the subject, among other things saying: 


If it can be proved to a demonstration that the Latter- 
Day Saints have actually embraced, as a part and portion 
of their religion, the doctrine of a plurality of wives, it 
is constitutional. And should there be laws enacted 
by this government to restrict them from the free exercise 
of their religion, such laws must be unconstitutional. .. . 
Now let us inquire what will become of those individuals 
who have this law taught them in plainness, if they reject 
it. I will tell you. They will be damned, saith the Lord, 
in the revelation he hath given. Why? Because, where 
much is given, much is required. 


The Millennial Star, which was begun in Liver- 
pool, England, in 1840 and is still published there, 
in its report of this conference in its issue of Janu- 
ary I, 1853, said of the “revelations,” referring spe- 
cially to the one on polygamy: 


None seem to penetrate so deep, or be so well calculated 
to shake to its very center the social structure which has 
been reared and vainly nurtured by this professedly wise 
and Christian generation, none more conclusively exhibit 
how surely an end must come to all the works, institutions, 
ordinances and covenants of men; none more portray the 
eternity of God’s purpose—and, we may say, none have 
carried so mighty an influence, or had the power to stamp 
their divinity upon the mind by absorbing every feeling 
of the soul, to the extent of the one which appeared in our 
last. 


BEGINNINGS OF MORMON POLYGAMY _ 193 


The publication of this “revelation” in England, 
however, was attended with reaction and disastrous 
results in that country, as is shown by the fact that 
it was followed by 2,164 excommunications reported 
at the semiannual conference of December 31, 1852, 
and 1,776 at the June conference of 1853.° 

Mormon teaching and practice on the subject of 
polygamy, beginning in the early days of the church 
with emphatic denial of such doctrine and the more 
or less irregular and concealed practice of it, in due 
time thus came out into the open in the official “reve- 
lation” and publication of both the doctrine and the 
practice, and this peculiar and distinctive institution 
of Mormonism was declared to be a foundation stone 
of its system of faith and life. It was solemnly 
asserted that “the Almighty has revealed such a 
doctrine,” and that “it is a part and portion of our 
religious faith.” It was fully understood and pro- 
claimed that the institution was “well calculated to 
shake to its very center the social structure which 
has been reared and vainly nurtured by this pro- 
fessedly wise and Christian generation,” and it was 
set up in defiance of the laws of the United States 
with the declaration that “should there ever be laws 
enacted by this government to restrict them from 
the free exercise of their religion, such laws would 
be unconstitutional.” This thing was not done in 
a corner or with any lack of understanding of its 
full meaning and grave consequences. The fol- 


*Linn, Story, p. 287. 


194 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


lowers of this system may have been dupes, but the 
leaders were not. They knew what they were doing 
and meant to do it. They flung and flaunted this 
offense and menace to our Christian civilization 
defiantly in its face and challenged opposition. 

And this doctrine still stands written in the official 
creed of this church. Not one line of it has ever 
been erased or modified. It still stares the Christian 
world in the face and defies the ethics of Christen- 
dom. One of the deepest roots of civilization that is 
the outgrowth and experience of thousands of years 
of human history is still denied and attacked by this 
church and would be torn up by it, did it have the 
power. It is true that the doctrine is now held in 
obeyance under the prohibition and power of law, 
but the doctrine itself has never been renounced or 
modified but only slumbers until the day of its awak- 
ening may safely come. Dynamite may be locked 
up in a secure place, where it may not threaten any 
immediate danger, but it is still dynamite and all 
its enormous power of destruction is coiled up in it 
ready, at the touch of the first electric spark or other 
circumstance, to explode and spread devastation far 
and wide. American civilization will be exposed to 
this menace as long as polygamy is the doctrine of 
the Mormon Church and is only waiting for a time 
when it may be let loose in all its evil power. 


CHAPTER XI 


THE REORGANIZED CHURCH OF LATTER-DAY 
SAINTS 


ORMONISM from the beginning ran the 
course of all religions in being subject to in- 
ternal differences which split it into rival factions 
and divided it into branches. In its early years it 
was attended with many quarrels which led to dis- 
affections and expulsions, resulting in a number of 
leaders going off to launch movements of their own. 
As many as twenty or more of these rival churches 
were started, which were only local groups and soon 
came to an end. 


I. EARLY DIVISIONS AMONG THE MORMONS 


One of the most important of these disaffected 
leaders was Sidney Rigdon, who, after his expul- 
sion by the High Council at Nauvoo in 1844 in the 
midst of the dissensions and rivalries following the 
death of the Prophet Joseph, returned to Pitts- 
burgh, Pa., and started a church which he called 
“The Church of Christ,’ and began the publica- 
tion of a newspaper to carry on his propaganda. 


His pretensions to “visions” and “revelations” met 
195 


196 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


with ridicule, and his church quickly disappeared. 
Another rival church was set up in Wisconsin by 
James Strang who claimed to be the successor of 
the Prophet and practiced polygamy and was shot 
by two of his followers whom he had offended. And 
still another of these leaders was Lyman Wight, who 
had been one of the Twelve in Missouri and led a 
company into Texas where he practiced polygamy 
and had a short career. 

All attempts to appropriate the Prophet Joseph’s 
mantle and steal his thunder failed with one excep- 
tion and this one survives today in the Reorganized 
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, popu- 
larly known as “Josephites,” which has its head- 
quarters at Lamoni, Ia. After the death of the 
Prophet there were a number of small groups of 
Mormons scattered through Ohio, Illinois, Wiscon- 
sin, and Iowa, who did not follow the leadership of 
Brigham Young or accept the doctrine and practice 
of polygamy. After several preliminary meetings, 
a meeting was held on April 6, 1860, at Amboy, IIL, 
where Joseph Smith, son of the Prophet, delivered 
a long address and then was ordained as Prophet, 
Seer and Revelator, a complete set of officers were 
elected, and the church was started. The mother 
of the original Prophet Joseph was received into its 
membership, and the original Smith family gener- 
ally cast in their lot with the Reorganized branch. 
The True Latter-Day Saints’ Herald was started 
as the organ of the church and was published in 


THE REORGANIZED CHURCH 197 


Cincinnati, Ohio, from 1860 to 1863, when it was 
removed to Plano, IIl., and in 1881 it was removed to 
Lamoni, the present headquarters of this branch, 
where a publishing house and a college are main- 
tained. 


2. THE DOCTRINES AND GROWTH OF THE REORGANIZED 
CHURCH 


The “Josephites’” have always repudiated polyg- 
amy and denied that the Prophet Joseph ever re- 
ceived or promulgated a “revelation” sanctioning 
this doctrine. Their position on this point is found 
in an official “Epitome of the Faith and Doctrines 
of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Lat- 
ter-Day Saints” which declares: 


We believe that Marriage is ordained of God; and 
that the law of God provides for but one companion in 
wedlock, for either man or woman, except in cases where 
the contract of marriage is broken by death or transgres- 
sion, 

We believe that the doctrines of a plurality of wives 
are heresies, and are opposed to the law of God. 


Yet they accept the Prophet Joseph as the in- 
spired founder of their church and the Book of 
Mormon as their Bible along with the Scriptures, 
and they accept the Doctrine and Covenants with the 
exception of Section 132 on polygamy. Their de- 
nial, however, that Joseph Smith ever received or 
promulgated his “revelation” on polygamy is dis- 


198 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


proved by indisputable facts, as we have already 
seen. | 
The Reorganized Church has its main seat at 
Lamoni, Ia., but also maintains headquarters at In- 
dependence, Mo., and has in its possession the orig- 
inal Mormon temple at Kirtland, O. It is an 
aggressive missionary body and at the present time 
has about 100,000 members and 200 missionaries in 
the field. It has sent missionaries abroad into Can- 
ada and England and as far as the Society Islands. 
This church claims to be the lineal and legal succes- 
sor of the original church founded in 1830, and this 
claim has twice been recognized by the United States 
Supreme Court. The “Josephites” have invaded 
Utah, where they have about 1,000 members, but the 
two branches, like the Jews and Samaritans, have 
“no dealings” with each other; and even the aban- 
donment of polygamy by the Utah branch has not 
tended to bring them together.’ 

*A long and tedious History of the Mormon Church, running to 
four volumes, “written and compiled by President Joseph Smith and 
Apostle Heman C. Smith, of the Reorganized Church,” gives a de- 


tailed account of the origin and teachings of this church. The 
account of its founding is in Vol. III, Chapter XII. 


Es We i al a 
THE FLIGHT TO THE MOUNTAINS 


Y the first of February, 1846, the greater part 

of the Mormons had made their way across the 
Mississippi and assembled and formed their first 
“Camp of Israel” at Sugar Creek in Iowa. They 
were now confronted with the trying problem of 
where to go and how to get there. For more than 
a year their leaders had foreseen the necessity of 
getting out of the Middle West and had been casting 
their eyes to the mountains and beyond to California 
and Oregon. The whole far western region was 
then little known and only vague ideas and wild 
rumors were available for the guidance of those 
looking towards the setting sun. 

Like Abraham the Mormon emigrants were about 
to go forth, “not knowing whither.” Lorenzo Snow 
in his Biography says of their departure: “On the 
first of March, the ground covered with snow, we 
broke encampment about noon, and soon nearly four 
hundred wagons were moving to—‘We knew not 
where.” 


I. ACROSS THE PLAINS OF IOWA 


Several weeks were spent in preparations for the 


great adventure into the unknown. At this time 
199 | 


200 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


Brigham Young gave out his first and only “reve- 
lation.” It differs characteristically from Smith’s 
religious lucubrations in that it contains little re- 
ligious teaching but is rather a business document 
giving directions as to the organizations of the 
Saints for their journey. They were to be divided 
into companies of fifties and of tens with captains, 
and all to be under the direction of the Twelve 
Apostles. Provisions were made for the supply of 
the emigrants on their long journey. “Let each 
company prepare houses and fields for raising grain 
for those who are to remain behind this season; and 
this is the will of the Lord concerning this people.” 
Only in the last paragraph does he fall into the 
pompous style of Smith: “Now, therefore, hearken! 
oh ye people of my church, and ye Elders listen to- 
gether. You have received my kingdom: Be diligent 
in keeping all my commandments, lest judgment 
come upon you, and your faith fail you, and your 
enemies triumph over you. Amen and Amen.” * 

Each company had a commissary department to 
secure supplies and “make a righteous distribution 
of grains and provisions.” These supplies were ob- 
tained by temporary farming, trading and hunting. 

About the first of March the first companies 
started and stretched out over a long trail in sections 
and stopped at intervals to establish camps and plant 
crops which were left for later comers. The route 


*The revelation is given in full by Stenhouse, Rocky Mountain 
Saints, pp. 253-254. 


THE FLIGHT TO THE MOUNTAINS 201 


lay across Iowa over rough or unbroken roads and 
began in the snows of winter and proceeded through 
the rains and mud of spring and the hot dusty days 
of summer. A leaf from Orson Pratt’s diary gives 
a picture of the hardships of the journey: 


April 9. The rain poured down in torrents. With 
great exertion a part of the camp were enabled to get 
about six miles, while others were stuck fast in deep mud. 
We encamped at a point of timber about sunset, after 
being drenched several hours in rain. We were obliged to 
cut brush and limbs of trees and throw them on the ground 
in our tents, to keep our beds from sinking in the mud. 
Our animals were turned loose to look out for them- 
selves; the bark and limbs of trees were their principal 
food. 


The Missouri River was their first objective, and 
this distance of 400 miles was covered in four 
months and in July the emigrants established them- 
selves at Winter Quarters near the present location 
of Omaha. Here they established a more perma- 
nent camp which became a town of 700 log houses, 
and a Council House called the Octagon was erected 
in which the High Council held its meetings. 


2. FROM IOWA TO THE GREAT SALT LAKE 


Several months were spent at Winter Quarters in 
preparation for the longer journey to an indefinite 
destination. The emigrants kept arriving in strag- 
gling companies from Nauvoo and the East and 
converts from Europe. 


202 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


From this point there set out a pioneer party to 
proceed to explore the western country and find a 
suitable location for the new Zion. Brigham Young 
was its leader and it consisted of 143 men and three 
women. They had 73 wagons and moved two wag- 
ons abreast and the men were under military dis- 
cipline, marching with loaded weapons and camping 
with the wagons arranged around them. There was 
fear of attacks from Indians, but though roving 
bands of them were encountered, no attack occurred. 

This intrepid band of men under the masterful 
leadership of Brigham Young set out on April 14, 
1847, and by the first of June had reached Fort 
Laramie 522 miles from Winter Quarters and 509 
from Great Salt Lake. They crossed the Platte 
River and struck the Oregon trail and by June 21 
had reached the Sweetwater River in Wyoming. 
They were now in the mountains and approaching 
the pass dividing the waters of the Atlantic from 
those of the Pacific but were still in doubt as to their 
destination. Young by this time had his mind di- 
rected to the Great Salt Lake Valley, but met with 
discouraging reports from traders and travelers 
who had been in it. 

The explorers pushed on and on July 18 an ad- 
vance party of them from an elevation saw ‘“‘a broad 
open valley at the north end of which the waters of 
the Great Salt Lake glistened in the sunbeams.” 
On the 24th of July Brigham Young and his party 
of explorers reached the lake and at its sight they 


THE FLIGHT TO THE MOUNTAINS 203 


exclaimed, “The Land of Promise! The Land of 
Promise !—held in reserve by the hand of God for 
the resting-place of his Saints.” To this day in Salt 
Lake City the 24th of July is celebrated in memory 
of this event. Eleven hundred miles of slow travel 
attended with much hardship and peril and adven- 
ture had brought them from Winter Quarters on 
the Missouri to what they hailed as their divinely 
appointed destination. 

Successive companies of Mormons kept moving 
along this trail from the Mississippi and the Mis- 
souri during the summer of 1847 and later years. 
The first large company, called “the first emigra- 
tion,’ consisted of 1,553 persons equipped with 
wagons, horses, cattle, sheep and other animal stock. 
The stream of emigrants resumed its steady flow in 
1848 when two companies, one of 1,229 persons and 
another of 662 persons with their outfits, arrived, 
and the population grew rapidly on the site and in 
the city of the new Zion. 


3. THE DISASTROUS HAND-CART EXPEDITION 


For a number of years Mormon converts from 
the East emigrants from England traveled to 
Salt Lake over the road from Iowa to the valley 
which was opened by the pioneers of 1847. It ran 
across Iowa to the Missouri, where it started across 
the plains to the Platte River, following this to the 
Sweetwater and over the South Pass down into the 


204 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


valley, a distance of more than 1,200 miles beset 
with hardship and danger. The roads were mostly 
mere trails, the plains were hot and dusty in summer, 
which rains turned to mud, many rivers and streams 
had to be crossed, and the winter cold and snows 
in the mountains were severe and often terrible to 
man and beast. 

The records show that on an average upwards of 
two thousand persons a year made this journey in 
wagons or on foot, and in 1855 the number exceeded 
four thousand. Companies of emigrants were as- 
sembled in England, chiefly at Liverpool, and ar- 
rangements made to send them across the Atlantic 
and on from New York to Iowa, where expeditions 
were organized for the journey to Salt Lake. The 
endeavor was made to send adults from England to 
Utah for $50 each, children half price, but it cost 
them more than this before the new Zion was 
reached. 

Brigham Young, wishing greatly to increase im- 
migration, conveyed to Elder F. D. Richards in 
Liverpool his plan as follows: “We cannot afford to 
purchase wagons and teams as in times past. Iam 
consequently thrown back upon my old plan—to 
make hand-carts, and let the emigration foot it. 
Fifteen miles a day will bring them through in 70 
days, and, after they get accustomed to it, they will 
travel 20, 25, or even 30 with all ease, and no danger 
of giving out, but will continue to get stronger and 
stronger; the little ones and sick, if there are any, 


THE FLIGHT TO THE MOUNTAINS 205 


can be carried on carts, but there will be none sick 
in a little time after they get started.” This prophecy 
compared with the disastrous results shows how 
easy it is to draw up such plans on paper. 

Elder Richards proceeded to announce, in the 
Millennial Star published in Liverpool, the plan of 
the hand-cart expedition “with such a flourish of 
trumpets as would have done honor to any of the 
most momentous events in the world’s history.” ? 

In the summer of 1856 about 1,300 persons 
reached Iowa City and started out in five successive 
companies on their long journey. Delays were oc- 
casioned by the fact that the hand-carts were not 
ready for the immigrants on their arrival. These 
carts were flimsy affairs, consisting of two light 
wheels with two projecting shafts on which each 
family was to transport its goods, limited to seven- 
teen pounds of clothing and bedding, together with 
a sack of flour weighing 98 pounds. 

The five companies starting in July and August 
were warned that it was too late in the season to 
make the journey before winter would set in. Elder 
Levi Savage, using “his common sense and his 
knowledge of the country,” declared that they could 
not cross the mountains so late in the season without 
much suffering and sickness and death, but “he 
was rebuked by other elders for want of faith, one 


7A complete account of this expedition written by John Chislett, 
a member of the company, is found in Stenhouse, Rocky Mountain 
Saints, Chapter XXXVII. 


206 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


elder even declaring that he would guarantee to eat 
all the snow that fell on us between Florence and 
Salt Lake City.” 

The dire predictions of those who had made the 
journey and knew what would happen soon began 
to be fulfilled. The carts began to break down and 
were in need of constant repairs, the aged and the 
children began to fail and had to be provided with 
transportation, and sickness developed at an alarm- 
ing rate. Winter caught them in the mountains and 
the most terrible scenes ensued. A few extracts 
from Chislett’s narrative will suffice to indicate the 
pitiful sufferings of these people: 


Weakness and debility were accompanied with dys- 
entery. This we could not stop or even alleviate, no 
proper medicines being in the camp. . . . Many a father 
pulled his cart, with his little children on it, until the 
day preceding his death. I have seen some pull their carts 
in the morning, give out during the day, and die before 
the next morning. . . . In the morning the snow was 
over a foot deep. Our cattle strayed widely in the storm, 
and some of them died. But what was worse than all this 
was the fact that five persons of both sexes lay in the 
cold embrace of death. We buried these five people in 
one grave, wrapped only in the clothing and bedding in 
which they died. ... The weather grew colder each 
day, and many got their feet so badly frozen that they 
could not walk. These severities of the weather also 
increased our number of deaths, so that we buried several 
each day. ... There were so many dead and dying 
that it was decided to lie by for the day. I was appointed 
to go round the camp and collect the dead. I took with 
me two young men to assist me in the sad task, and we 
collected together, of all ages and both sexes, thirteen 


THE FLIGHT TO THE MOUNTAINS 207 


corpses, all stiffly frozen. We had a large square hole dug 
in which we buried these thirteen people, three or four 
abreast and three deep. . . . What a terrible fate for 
poor, honest, God-fearing people, whose greatest sin was 
believing with a faith too simple that God would for their 
benefit reverse the order of nature. They believed this 
because their elders told them so; and had not the Apostle 
Richards prophesied in the name of Israel’s God that it 
would be so? But the terrible realities proved that Levi 
Savage, with his plain common sense and statement of 
facts, was right, and that Richards and the other elders, 
with the “Spirit of the Lord,” were wrong. 


The company of which Chislett was a member 
started with near 600 people “and lost over one- 
fourth of their number by death.” Other companies 
lost in like proportion, and only miserable remnants 
of these miguided bands of Mormon converts strag- 
gled and staggered ragged and starved and half- 
dead into their “Zion.” They had been told that if 
they had not faith enough to undertake the trip to 
Utah, they had not “faith sufficient to endure, with 
the Saints of Zion, the celestial law which leads to 
exaltation and eternal life,” and this hand-cart ex- 
pedition was the terrible disillusionment they experi- 
enced and price they paid for their credulity. 

Brigham Young, who had planned and initiated 
by his direct and autocratic order this ill-fated ex- 
pedition, found it necessary to unload the tragedy 
and odium of it on other shoulders, and of all men 
in the world he picked on Elder D. F. Richards, the 
very man in Liverpool to whom he had revealed his 
plan and given his order to carry it out. “On the 


208 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


arrival of the Apostle Richards, Brigham attacked 
him in the Tabernacle, held him up to ridicule and 
contempt, and cursed him in the name of Israel’s 
God. Elder Daniel Spencer, who had been the 
counselor of Richards, came in for his share of the 
contempt and anathemas. For years after, the 
apostle could scarcely lift up his head; he absented 
himself from the public meetings and was rarely 
seen in times of rejoicing. For ten years Richards 
and Spencer were under a cloud and silently bore 
their heavy grief.”’* Thus the disastrous hand- 
cart expedition illustrated the autocracy of Brigham 
Young, his power over his dupes that could even 
reach with its long hand over the sea, and his mean- 
ness in evading his own responsibility and throwing 
its burden of odium on others. Yet one cannot 
withhold his admiration for the heroism of these 
immigrants in enduring hardship in the service of 
their faith even unto death. 
*Stenhouse, Rocky Mountain Saints, pp. 341-342. 


CHAPTER XIII 
MORMON MISSIONS 


NE test of the aggressive faith and force of 
a religion is its missionary spirit and service. 
Is it a local cult content to stay within its native 
home, or does it push out across all boundaries and 
dream of being a world religion? Tested by this 
principle Mormonism is to be ranked as a missionary 
religion with world ambitions, for this dream was 
cherished and surprising strides made towards this 
goal. This was from the beginning the claim of its 
founder. Joseph Smith averred that “Mormonism 
would some day rule the world.” 


I, EARLY MORMON MISSIONS 


Mormonism began missionary work surprisingly 
early. The first edition of the Mormon Bible ap- 
peared in 1830, but before this converts were being 
gained, Joseph Smith’s brother Hyrum being the 
first. The Mormon church was organized on April 
6, 1830, and within this year there were branch 
churches at Fayette, Manchester and Colesville, 
New York. In October of this year four mission- 


aries were sent to Ohio under the leadership of Oli- 
209 


210 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


ver Cowdery, ostensibly to preach to the Lamanites 
or Indians. They stopped at Buffalo to instruct the 
Indians and went to Kirtland, Ohio, where the head- 
quarters of the church were soon established. Cow- 
dery and Pratt continued their missionary journey 
westward and reached the western border of Mis- 
souri in 1831. Smith and Rigdon followed them 
to Independence in that state, where they laid the 
corner stones of the City of Zion and its temple, for 
already they were contemplating removal from Ohio 
to the West. In June of this year thirty elders were 
sent westward on a preaching tour. 

These first missionaries and all subsequent ones 
preached along with the distinctive doctrines of 
Mormonism the imminent second coming of Christ 
with alarmist accompaniments and effects and prac- 
ticed faith healing with the usual kind and degree 
of results in this line. They also went at their own 
charges and were bound to go forthwith and un- 
questioningly at the bidding of the President or 
other authority; and this authority was often used 
as a means of disposing of an undesirable member 
or of inflicting punishment.* 

The testimony of Stenhouse, who wrote out of 
personal knowledge, may be adduced on this point: 


From the youth in his teens, to the elder in hoary age, 
all the brethren are subject to be “called on mission”’ at 


*Thus Orson Pratt, having fallen under the displeasure of 
Brigham Young and been branded as an “Apostate,” was sent by 
him on a mission to Europe. Stenhouse, Rocky Mountain Saints, 
PP- 493-494. 


MORMON MISSIONS 211 


any time, and in such calls no personal conveniences are 
ever consulted. Should a merchant be wanted for a “mis- 
sion,” his business must be left in other hands, and his 
affairs can be conducted by other brains: so with the 
artisan, the mechanic, the farmer, and the ploughboy— 
they must in their way do the best they can. Seed-time 
or harvest, summer or winter, pleasure or important 
work—nothing in which they are engaged is allowed to 
stand in the way. If poor, and the family is dependent 
on the outgoing missionary, that must be no hindrance— 
the mission is given, he has to go, and the family “trusts 
in the ‘Lord,’ ” and in the tender mercies of the bishop! ? 


And Lorenzo Snow, who was sent out on a mis- 
sion from Kirtland in 1837, says: “It was a severe 
trial to my natural feelings of independence to go 
without purse or scrip—especially the purse; for, 
from the time I was old enough to work, the feeling 
that ‘I paid my way’ always seemed a necessary ad- 
junct to self-respect.” * We must admire the hero- 
ism of such faith and obedience, and it is one secret 
cf the aggressiveness of Mormonism to this day. 

Converts at Kirtland were now rapidly growing 
and congregating and soon numbered more than a 
thousand. Many converts were sent out as mission- 
aries in every direction. Brigham Young himself 
soon after joining Smith at Kirtland went as a mis- 
sionary to Canada and subsequently spent a year in 
this service in Europe. 

In his Autobiography Smith gives an account of a 
missionary journey into New England undertaken 


* Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 568. 
®Linn, Story, p. 229. 


212 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


by himself and his brother Hyrum and Sidney Rig- 
don that illustrates their method. He says that on 
July 25, 1836, they were in Salem, Mass., where 
“we hired a house and occupied the same during the 
month, teaching the people from house to house.” 
On this trip, however, Smith was combining busi- 
ness with religion, for he had been told a tale, by 
a convert from this town, of a buried treasure in 
Salem and he hired the house with the hope of find- 
ing it in the cellar. But this hope, like other treas- 
ure hunting expeditions of his, proved vain. 

Within three years from the organization of the 
Mormon Church there were congregations “in 
nearly all the Northern and Middle states and in 
some of the Southern, with baptisms of from 30 to 
130 each.” * When Smith was assassinated in June, 
1844, Brigham Young was electioneering for him 
in New Hampshire as a candidate for the presi- 
dency, and the next year a conference of Mormons 
was held in New York City with representatives 
from the states of New York, Connecticut and New 
Jersey to consider the question of moving the head- 
quarters of the church west of the Rocky Moun- 
tains. 

This rapid growth of Mormonism is almost in- 
credible, but the soil of the time, as we have seen, 
was ripe for rank growths of superstitious cults, and 
Mormonism, with its new Prophet and Bible and 
“revelations,” its mythical chronicles and strange 


*Linn, Story, p. 132. 


MORMON MISSIONS 213 


jargon and metaphysical mummeries that work with 
hypnotic power on persons in a susceptible psycho- 
logical and pathological condition, found a ready 
reception. 


2. MORMON MISSIONS ABROAD 


Even more surprising than its rapid spread in this 
country is the early date at which Mormonism 
leaped across the Atlantic and took vigorous root in 
England and invaded the Continent and then crossed 
the Pacific and swept around the world. It is an 
astonishing fact that within six or seven years after 
Smith had completed his absurd Bible his cult was 
extended to foreign lands.° 

The Lord revealed to Joseph, says Stenhouse, that 
“in order to save his church” a foreign mission must 
be improvised, and Great Britain was selected as the 
new field of labor. “The Apostles Heber C. Kimball 
and Orson Pratt were accordingly chosen to intro- 
duce the gospel in Europe. On the 12th of June, 
1837, they left Kirtland, and thus began the first 
foreign mission. These apostles were accompanied 
by other elders, and in a few months were successful 
in converting great numbers in England, and in 
doing so saved the church in America.” In one 
English town, Preston in Lancashire, 500 converts 

®For details as to early Mormon foreign missions, see Linn, 
Story, pp. 228-230; Stenhouse, Rocky Mountain Saints, pp. 9-10, 
68, 312, 475; Tullidge, History of Salt Lake City, Chapter XI; Pres- 


ident Joseph Smith (of Reorganized Church), History, Vol. II, 
Chapter XXII. 


214 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM ~ 


were secured in a short time. Brigham Young and 
other members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apos- 
tles were among these early missionaries. 

In 1840 Orson Hyde was sent on a special mission 
to the Jews in London, Amsterdam, Constantinople, 
and Jerusalem, “and the same year missionaries 
were sent to Australia, Wales, Ireland, the Isle of 
Man, and the East Indies. In 1844 a missionary was 
sent to the Sandwich Islands; in 1849 others were 
sent to France, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Ice- 
land, Italy, and Switzerland; in 1852 a branch of the 
church was organized at Malta; in 1853 three elders 
reached the Cape of Good Hope; and in 1861 two 
began work in Holland, but with poor success.” 

Another astonishing fact is that the Millennial 
Star, an organ of Mormonism, was started in Liver- 
pool, England, in May, 1840, and is continued to this 
day. ‘The early volumes contain the official epistles 
of the heads of the church to their followers, Smith’s 
Autobiography, correspondence describing the early 
migrations and the experiences in Utah, and much 
other valuable material, the authenticity of which 
cannot be disputed by the Mormons.” ® 

The membership of the Mormon church in Eng- 
land and Scotland increased rapidly from the begin- 
ning. In 1840 the General Conference reported 
4,019 in England, and in 1850 they numbered 27,863 
in England and Scotland, and in Wales 4,342. In 
1851 the report to the General Conference said: 

*Linn, Story, pp. VII-VIII. 


MORMON MISSIONS 215 


“During the last fourteen years more than 50,000 
have been baptized in England, of which nearly 
17,000 have migrated from her shores to Zion.” 

These converts in Great Britain poured steady 
streams of emigrants across the Atlantic to Nau- 
voo and then on to Salt Lake. Steamships were char- 
tered and they were sent in boat loads to New York, 
until the route was changed to New Orleans and up 
the Mississippi at less expense. The converts were 
required to pay their own way and the effort was 
made to select men of means and mechanics of all 
kinds were also sought as emigrants to the new Zion. 
From 1840 to 1845 inclusive twenty-eight vessels 
crossed the Atlantic carrying 3,750 emigrants, the 
largest number, 1,614, crossing in 1842. 

England in the eighteen forties was a specially 
favorable time and soil for the Mormon propaganda. 
The factory system was then at its worst in herding 
the people in mill towns where poverty caused by 
low wages sunk multitudes in misery, and the drab 
existence of the dreary factory drudgery made any 
prospect of escape a welcome relief. The people 
were in a gullible psychological condition, and the 
stories told of the new Zion, pictures painted in the 
lurid millennial colors of a new Paradise, seized 
with the avidity and force of an obsession upon the 
wearied souls and susceptible imagination of the 
superstitious and swept them in crowds into the 
Mormon meetings. The novelty of the doctrine, the 
wonders of the alleged miracles, the easy way of get- 


216 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


ting to America, the land of golden promise, the 
special attractions held out to young women of 
speedy marriage invested with a new divine halo, 
the boundless opportunities of a new rich country 
for men of means and ambition, these and other 
motives combined to win converts and send them in 
steamship loads across the sea. ‘The excitement,” 
says Stenhouse, ‘“‘was contagious, even affecting per- 
sons in the higher ranks of social life, and the result 
was a grand outpouring of spiritual and miraculous 
healing power of the most astonishing description. 
Miracles were heard of everywhere, and numerous 
competent and most reliable witnesses bore testimony 
to their genuineness.” * However their genuineness 
was also badly damaged by the exposure of some of 
them as clumsy tricks of deception. 

All sorts of tales were told to work upon the feel- 
ings and hopes of the people. Letters were written 
from officers in America to the missionaries declar- 
ing that the immigrants traveled in wagon trains a 
mile in length and that the Lord rained down upon 
them manna in such rich profusion that it covered 
from seven to ten acres of ground. It was like 
wafers dipped in honey and both Saints and sinners 
partook of its abundance. 

The disillusionment of such hopes that many ex- 
perienced was often speedy and sometimes tragic, 
the disaster of “the hand-cart expedition” being an 
instance of it. Some converts became backsliders 


‘Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 10. 


MORMON MISSIONS 217 


before they left England and at times and places the 
church membership rapidly fell off. Some of the 
most intelligent and influential converts gave up the 
faith and bore testimony against it. 


3. LATER MORMON MISSIONS 


Mormon missions both home and foreign have 
not maintained their initial aggressiveness and rapid 
growth, and yet they have continued active and have 
not become a spent force. Missionaries are still sent 
out in large numbers, although the number during 
recent years appears to be at a standstill, if not on 
a decline. “The number of missionaries at work in 
October, 1901,” says Linn, “was stated to me by 
church officers at from fourteen hundred to nine . 
teen hundred, the smaller number being insisted 
upon as correct by those who gave it. As nearly as 
could be ascertained, about one-half of this force is 
employed in the United States and the rest abroad.” ® 
The total number of home and foreign missionaries 
at present (1925), according to available informa- 
tion, is about eighteen hundred, the Reorganized 
branch having about two hundred. 

Mormon missionaries have continued to be sent 
out from Salt Lake City to every part of the country. 
Their chief fields and success, however, have been in 
the adjacent states of Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, 
Idaho, Colorado and New Mexico, in all of which 


® Story, p. 612. 


218 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


they have become a strong and in several of them a 
dominating element and influence, controlling poli- 
tics and electing legislatures and United States Sen- 
ators. These missionaries are still selected and sent 
by the church officers and must go without question- 
ing the order and at their own expense, and the 
arbitrary dictatorial autocracy of the church at this 
point has not declined. 

Mormon missionaries are also sent into other 
states, east and west, north and south. They are 
especially numerous and successful among the illit- 
erate and superstitious classes in the South who are 
susceptible to Mormon preaching and practices. 
They are also found in leading cities, east and west, 
and have headquarters in New York. They seldom 
hold public meetings that are exploited so as to at- 
tract attention, but send their agents quietly from 
house to house to distribute leaflets and other litera- 
ture that set forth their doctrines and attractions. 
Special pains are taken to reach servant girls and 
many of them have been lured to Utah with the 
promise of husbands and homes of their own. 

The Mormon foreign missionary propaganda re- 
ceived a strong check with the publication of the 
doctrine of polygamy. This at once slowed down 
the increase in the converts in England and Scotland 
and was followed in time with a great falling off 
in Mormon church membership in foreign lands. 
The number of these members, as published in the 
Mullenmal Star of December, 1899, was as follows: 


MORMON MISSIONS 219 


Great Britain, 4,588; Scandinavia, 5,438; Germany, 
1,198; Switzerland, 1,078; Netherlands, 1,556. The 
total for all these foreign countries in 1899 was only 
13,850, whereas the total in Great Britain alone in 
1850 was 32,185. Polygamy was the chief cause 
of this decline to less than one half, but other causes 
were the discouraging reports of misrepresentations 
and disappointments experienced by converts who 
had gone to the new Zion, which with many proved 
to be a land of hard labor and bitter disillusionment. 

In due time, also, after the United States had out- 
lawed polygamy in Utah, steps were taken by the 
federal authorities to stop the organized immigra- 
tion of law-defying polygamists. In 1879 Secretary 
of State Evarts sent a circular to all diplomatic 
officers of the United States calling their attention to 
“a deliberate and systematic attempt to bring persons 
to the United States with the intent of violating their 
laws,” and instructing them to call the attention of 
the foreign governments to the matter that they 
may take steps to “‘check the organization of these 
criminal enterprises.” Careful vigilance is still kept 
on Mormon immigrants to see that they are not 
brought in under an arrangement or understanding 
that would be inimical to our laws. 

The Mormons make comparatively few converts 
from their Gentile neighbors and must go away 
from home, where they are less well known, to induce 
people to accept their religious and social system. 
They have made some incursions into Canada and 


220 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


Mexico, but in both these countries they have met 
with small welcome and much suspicion, and with 
surveillance from the authorities to see that they do 
not bring with them the practice of their peculiar 
institution. 


CHAPTER XIV 
THE CITY BY THE GREAT SALT LAKE 


HEN Brigham Young with his little company 

of pioneers on July 24, 1847, looked out over 
the Salt Lake Valley and saw the glittering waters 
of its sea, did his prophetic foresight catch a vision 
of the fair city, even one of the most picturesque for 
situation and beautiful cities in the world, rising as 
if by magic in that silent solitude? We do not know, 
but he claimed to have seen the place in a vision 
and he proceeded to act as though he had done so, 
and he made his dream come true. 


I. THE VALLEY AND THE LAKE 


Salt Lake Valley is a unique region in the heart of 
the mountainous district of the West. It runs south- 
east and northwest and is rimmed with ranges so 
that it is like a saucer with no outlet for its waters, 
but on the northwest the rim dips low and ap- 
proaches the level of the desert. The soil is dry and 
generally rich and at the magic touch of water 
wakes to life and is prolific in grass and flowers and 
fruits and harvests. The Great Salt Lake lies in 


the heart of this natural depression with an extreme 
221 


222 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


length of 75 miles and a breadth of 50 miles, with 
a mountainous promontory thrust into it from the 
northeast and several rocky islands. In earlier geo- 
logical times the waters filled the whole valley in a 
large inland sea and found an outlet over the low 
rim to the north into the Columbia river. But 
changed geological conditions permitted evapora- 
tion to dry up the sea to the present dimensions of 
the lake, which now lies in the central trough of the 
valley. It is a shallow body of water, its greatest 
depth being 60 feet and its average depth from 15 
to 20 feet. Itis fed by mountain streams and chiefly 
by the Jordan, the Bear and Weber rivers flowing 
into it from the mountains to the east and south. 

The most remarkable characteristic of the lake is 
its salinity. As it has no outlet, continued evapora- 
tion has left in its water a deposit of salts from the 
impregnated rocks and soil of the region until it 
contains nearly 25 per cent by weight of solid mat- 
ter, making its water very bitter and giving it such 
specific gravity that the human body will not sink in 
it. Its beach is thus a safe and delightful bathing 
resort where drowning is practically impossible. 
The level of the lake is subject to seasonal fluctua- 
tions and also to periodic variations of level of as 
much as 13 feet. Mineral and hot springs abound in 
the canyons and yet the water in the streams is clear 
and pure. 

The region is one of picturesque features and 
scenic beauty. The rim of the mountains cut and 


THE CITY BY THE GREAT SALT LAKE 223 


carved with canyons, the foaming cascades and 
sparkling springs and streams, the grass-covered, 
flowered-embroidered plain, and the smooth shim- 
mering sea, combine to form a picture of rare grand- 
eur and loveliness, and no wonder that Apostle 
Wilford Woodruff, who was one of Brigham 
Young’s pioneer party, records in his diary: 


We gazed in wonder and admiration upon the vast 
valley before us, with the waters of the Great Salt Lake 
glistening in the sun, mountains towering to the skies, 
and streams of pure water running through the beautiful 
valley. It was the grandest view we had ever seen till 
this moment. . . . President Young expressed his en- 
tire satisfaction at the appearance of the valley as a rest- 
ing place for the Saints, and felt amply repaid for his 
journey. 


Such was the valley, then a part of Mexico, into 
which the Mormons through incredible tribulations 
escaped out of the United States, to found, as they 
believed, a new empire which they came near realiz- 
ing, a dream which they do not believe is yet dead. 
The setting was worthy of the dream and it has 
ever since played the leading part in this story, and 
its city is the seat and center of Mormonism today. 


2. THE FOUNDING AND BUILDING OF THE CITY 


The work of founding and building the city, at 
first named “The City of the Great Salt Lake,” and 


* History of Salt Lake City, by Edward W. Tullidge, p. 43. This 
large volume is a full Mormon history of the city. 


224 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


subsequently changed to Salt Lake City, began and 
was pushed forward with incredible energy and ra- 
pidity. “As soon as our encampment was formed,” 
writes Woodruff in his diary, “before taking my 
dinner, having half a bushel of potatoes, I went to 
the plowed field and planted them, hoping, with the 
blessing of God, to save at least seed for another 
year. The brethren had dammed up one of the 
creeks and dug a trench, and by night nearly the 
whole ground, which was found very dry, was 
irrigated.” 

This arrival was on Saturday and the Sabbath 
was observed as a day of rest and worship, and then 
on Monday morning business began early. Four 
days after the arrival Brigham Young located the 
site of the city about ten miles east of the lake and 
waving his hand over it said: “Here is the 40 acres 
for the temple. The city can be laid out perfectly 
square, north and south, east and west.” The 4o 
acres for the temple were in a few days reduced to 
10, but on that spot the temple was built as the 
center and hub from which everything radiates, and 
the whole city, now a splendid expanse of buildings 
and streets and parks, stands today as it was struck 
out at one blow from the fertile brain of its master 
builder. It is fortunate in having had a man of such 
vision and leadership to lay it out on such an ample 
and systematic plan and to foreordain its future. 

Immigrants continued to pour in in a steady 
stream and the city grew so rapidly that within 


THE CITY BY THE GREAT SALT LAKE 225 


eight months it had 423 houses, and 1,671 inhabi- 
tants. Captain Howard Stansbury, of the United 
States Topographical Engineers, arrived in the city 
in August, 1849, only two years after it was 
founded, and from his description of it as it stood in 
1850, we transcribe some extracts which give a good 
picture of the physical features of the city even as it 
is today: 


A city has been laid out upon a magnificent scale, being 
nearly four miles in length and three in breadth; the 
streets at right angles with each other, eight rods or one 
hundred and thirty-two feet wide, with sidewalks of 
twenty feet; the blocks forty rods square, divided into 
eight lots, each of which contains an acre and a quarter 
of ground. By an ordinance of the city, each house 
is to be placed twenty feet back from the front line of 
the lot, the intervening space being designed for shrub- 
bery and trees. The site for the city is most beautiful: 
it lies at the western base of the Wasatch Mountains, in 
a curve formed by the projection westward from the main 
range of a lofty spur which forms its southern boundary. 
On the west it is washed by the waters of the Jordan, 
while to the southward for twenty-five miles extends a 
broad, level plain, watered by several little streams, which 
flowing down from the eastern hills, form the great ele- 
ment of fertility and wealth to the community. Through 
the city itself flows an unfailing stream of pure, sweet 
water, which, by an ingenious mode of irrigation, is made 
to traverse each side of every street, whence it is led into 
every garden-spot, spreading life, verdure and beauty over 
what was heretofore a barren waste. On the east and 
north the mountain descends to the plain by steps, which 
form broad and elevated terraces, commanding an exten- 
sive view of the whole valley of the Jordan, which is 
bounded on the west by a range of rugged mountains, 


226 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


stretching far to the southward, and enclosing within 
their embrace the lovely little Lake Utah. On the northern 
confines of the city, a warm spring issues from the base 
of the mountain, the water of which has been conducted 
by pipes into a commodious bathing house; while, at 
the western point of the same spur, about three miles 
distant, another spring flows in a bold stream from be- 
neath a perpendicular rock, with a temperature too high 
to admit the insertion of the hand (128 Fahrenheit). The 
city was estimated to contain about eight thousand inhabi- 
tants and was divided into numerous wards, each, at the 
time of our visit, enclosed by a substantial fence, for the 
protection of the young crops.? 


Few white men had visited the valley before the 
coming of the Mormons, and when they settled in it 
they thought they had at last found a retreat and 
refuge from the presence and perils of the civiliza- 
tion that had been so inhospitable to them. But 
already California was beginning to attract atten- 
tion, and the discovery of gold there in 1849 at once 
started streams of gold-seekers, the ‘“forty-niners,”’ 
flowing through the valley, and the Mormons them- 
selves “struck gold” in furnishing them with sup- 
plies. Brigham Young discouraged to the point of 
forbidding them from following the new lure and 
admonished them not to abandon farming for pros- 
pecting, and to this day with one of the largest 
copper mines in the world within sight of their city 
they take little interest in mining. 

Salt Lake City continued to grow in manufacture 
and trade and wealth until it became a dominating 

* Tullidge, History of Salt Lake City, p. 55. 


THE CITY BY THE GREAT SALT LAKE 227 


center. The coming of the railroads, especially such 
great transcontinental lines as the Union Pacific in 
1869, the Western Pacific, and the Los Angeles and 
Salt Lake, greatly increased the importance and fa- 
cilities of its position and made it the metropolis 
between Denver and San Francisco. 


3. SALT LAKE CITY TODAY 


Salt Lake City is today in every respect a modern 
city with unique attractions among American cities. 
Its present population is about 120,000 and its pic- 
turesque situation, salubrious and delightful climate, 
admirable plan, wide streets, beautiful parks and 
many notable buildings sustain its reputation and 
draw visitors from many parts of the world. A 
noted writer has recently declared it to be “one of 
the most beautiful towns on the planet”... in 
“that spacious valley lying between the snow-topped 
Wasatches on the east, and the dreamy Oquirrhs on 
the west, the far glitter of the Great Salt Lake on 
one horizon replying across the miles to the streams 
that flash their silver down all the countless canyons 
of the Wasatch Range—that valley, wide incredibly, 
and filled to its distant brim with green that turns, 
at the edge of the Rockies, to the purple of the 
north and the blue of Italy.” * 

The Gentiles now outnumber the Mormons, yet 


* Katherine Fullerton Gerould, in Harper’s Monthly Magazine for 
June, 1924. 


228 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


it is the Mormon establishment and interests that 
are the distinctive features of the city. In the Tem- 
ple Block as the dominating center and stone core 
of the city stands the stately Temple, 186 by 99 feet 
in dimensions, with granite walls six feet thick and 
six spires, the highest rising to 220 feet. It was 
40 years in process of construction (1853-1893), 
and as it is a Mormon production in architectural 
conception and erection the Mormons are proud of it 
and claim that it was planned by divine inspiration. 
It is an impressive building as it looms up over every 
part of the city, but it is a house of mystery to all 
but Mormons, for only they are permitted to enter it 
and then only through an underground passage, as it 
has no outer doors. It hides still deeper mysteries 
as in its inner chambers are performed the secret 
rites of initiation and marriage. 

Next in order of importance and of more interest 
to Gentiles, as it is accessible to them, is the Taber- 
nacle, a huge, squat, elliptical structure with a turtle- 
shell shaped roof. The auditorium, with its circular 
gallery running clear around it, its choir gallery, 
and its great organ, seats 10,000 people, and yet its 
acoustics are so perfect that ordinary conversation 
in its pulpit is heard with distinctness and ease in 
every part of its vast space, another instance, it is 
claimed, of inspired architecture. The Tabernacle 
is the great Mormon show-place for Gentiles, as 
great public services are held here, when Mormonism 
hides its most objectionable features and puts on its 


as ae : 


* 


a ees 


Pe abt nepe 





THE TABERNACLE 





THE CITY BY THE GREAT SALT LAKE 229 


best appearance, and the great organ plays grandly, 
and the choir of 500 trained voices sings magnifi- 
cently. The writer attended one of these services 
and was impressed by the vast throng and heard an 
apostle deliver a sermon faultless in diction and elo- 
cution from which all distinctive Mormon doctrine 
and coloring were carefully eliminated, and one 
might have thought that he was in an evangelical 
Christian church, although the spirit of worshipful 
quiet and reverence was noticeably if not painfully 
lacking. The great organ is also played daily. at 
noon and good music is rendered and this attracts 
throngs of visitors. 

The Temple and the Tabernacle are the two foci 
of Mormonism in the city, although there are other 
important buildings, such as the Assembly Hall and 
the bishopric building in which are the church of- 
fices. While the Tabernacle is the central seat of 
Mormon worship, yet the Mormons appreciate the 
importance of local supervision, and small churches 
are planted around in the wards where Sunday 
morning services and Sunday school are held and 
the ward bishop and elders and teachers can main- 
tain close oversight and control of the members. 

The orthodox Christian churches are well 
represented in the city, and many of them have 
imposing buildings and large and influential con- 
gregations. Among these are the St. Mary’s Roman 
Catholic Cathedral, St. Mark’s Protestant Episcopal 


230 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


Cathedral, the First Presbyterian Church, the First 
Methodist Episcopal Church, and others. 

Educational interests are well provided for. The 
public school system is up to date, and the University 
of Utah, chartered by the Mormons in 1850, has 
passed out of their hands and is now a state uni- 
versity with a campus of 60 acres and modern 
equipment and standards. The Mormons now have 
their own institution, the Brigham Young Univer- 
sity, although some Mormon students prefer to at- 
tend the state university. The Presbyterians have 
their Westminster College, and the Roman Catho- 
lics, Congregationalists and Protestant Episcopali- 
ans have their educational institutions of college or 
academy rank. 

The business of the city is largely in Gentile hands 
as are the principal newspapers, notably the Salt 
Lake Tribune, a newspaper of exceptional ability 
and influence. The Mormons have their Zion’s Co- 
operative Mercantile Institution, as the central man- 
ufacturing and distributing agency of their wide- 
spread business. It has many factories and branches 
and does an annual business running up into many 
millions of dollars. The Mormons are intensely clan- 
nish and in business as well as in religion stick 
together and support their own institutions. In the 
early days every effort was made to keep out Gentile 
manufactures and merchants, and police were sta- 
tioned at Gentile stores to see that Mormons did not 
enter and buy. However, there is now a general and 


THE CITY BY THE GREAT SALT LAKE 231 


friendly commingling of the Mormon and Gentile 
elements and interests in the city. 

Salt Lake City is today a clean, orderly and beau- 
tiful city, and its level of morality and culture com- 
pares favorably with that of other American cities; 
but it is now a predominantly Gentile city in which 
American Christian ideals and law have suppressed 
the chief ugly social feature and moral menace of 
Mormonism, and its condition in its early days when 
it was wholly Mormon and, secluded from other in- 
fluences, presented a very different picture. No 
language was then too severe and vulgar and pro- 
fane to express the judgment and condemnation of 
its condition by its own founders and apostles. In 
1856 J. M. Grant, the first mayor of the city, de- 
clared that “you can scarcely find a place in this city 
that is not full of filth and abomination,” and Brig- 
ham Young expressed himself on the same subject in 
language that is now hardly fit to print. The in- 
filtration of Americanization, of modern education 
and culture, of Christian ideas and ideals, has pro- 
foundly affected Mormonism, and this is the hope 
for it in the future, 

‘Linn, Story, p. 443. 


CHAPTER XV 
EARLY HISTORY IN UTAH 


HEN they had reached their final settle- 

ment in Salt Lake Valley, the Mormons be- 

gan to act with their usual energy and aggression 
and made history with surprising rapidity. 


I. POLITICAL ORGANIZATION 


They quickly picked out the strategic points in the 
Valley and occupied them with settlements and 
within four years they incorporated cities or towns 
at Salt Lake, Ogden, Provo, Manti, Parowan, and 
other places. When they entered Utah the region 
vaguely belonged to Mexico, but by a treaty of July 
4, 1848, it passed into the possession of the United 
States. Brigham Young quickly sensed the situa- 
tion that he was again within the reach and power 
of the federal government and he immediately took 
steps to organize an American state. A convention 
was held at Salt Lake City on March 4, 1849, at 
which a constitution was adopted for a state to be 
called the State of Deseret; * and its wide-sweeping 


_*The name Deseret has no connection with the word desert, but 
is a word of Mormon coinage which Mormons say means honey-bee. 
Gibbs, Lights and Shadows, p. 168. 


232 


EARLY HISTORY IN UTAH 233 


boundaries were described as extending from the 
Columbia River on the north to Mexico on the south 
and westward clear to the Pacific Ocean. 

A petition asking for the admittance of this state 
was sent to Congress, where it was opposed by a 
counter petition signed by William Smith, a brother 
of the Prophet Joseph, and twelve other Mormon 
members on the ground that the Mormon emigrants 
before leaving Nauvoo had taken an oath that they 
would “avenge the blood of Joseph Smith upon this 
nation” and “keep the same a profound secret now 
and ever.” 

The petition was refused, but on the 9th of Sep- 
tember, 1851, the Territory of Utah was admitted 
and Brigham Young was appointed governor. 

In the meantime the legislature of the State of 
Deseret met and transacted business as though it 
had been legally constituted. It adopted laws and 
ordinances and incorporated “The Church of Jesus 
Christ of Latter-Day Saints,” giving the church 
complete authority to make its own laws, including 
the regulation of marriage, and thus it planted the 
seeds of polygamy in the charter of the church. 

When Brigham Young was appointed by Presi- 
dent Fillmore Governor of Utah it appeared to the 
followers of Joseph Smith that his dream of a theo- 
cratic state with the Governor of the state and the 
Prophet or President of the church united in one 
vicegerent of Jehovah was being realized. Brigham 
Young himself felt the elation of his position and 


234 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


uttered great swelling words of boasting arbitrary 
authority and defiance. Speaking in the Tabernacle 
on February 15, 1855, he said: 

My kingship, my presidentship, and all shall bow to 
that eternal priesthood which God has bestowed upon me. 
I have been Governor of this Territory ever since it had 


one, and in all my official transactions I have acted in ac- 
cordance with the priesthood. 


At a conference of the church in 1853 Apostle 
Taylor said: 

Let us now notice our political position in the world. 
What are we going to do? We are going to possess the 
earth. Why? Because it belongs to Jesus Christ, and 
he belongs to us, and we to him; we are all one, and will 
take the kingdom and possess it under the whole heavens, 
and reign over it for ever and ever. Now, ye kings and 
emperors, help yourselves, if you can. This is the truth, 
and it may as well be told at this time as any other.? 


Obviously there was no uncertainty in the minds 
of the Mormon leaders as to the kind of a theocracy 
and autocracy they were setting up in the Salt Lake 
Valley. 


2. FIRST CLASH WITH THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 


When Utah was admitted as a federal territory 
President Fillmore, besides appointing Brigham 
Young Governor, also appointed other federal off- 
cers, most of whom were Mormons; but three of 
them, Chief Justice L. G. Brandebury, Associate 

* Gibbs, Lights and Shadows, p. 170. 


EARLY HISTORY IN UTAH 235 


Justice P. E. Brocchus and Secretary B. H. Harris, 
were non-Mormons. On the arrival of these Gentile 
officials they were well received, but in September 
at a general conference of the Mormon Church 
Judge Brocchus was invited to address the assembly, 
when he took occasion to admonish the Mormons on 
the subject of loyalty to the federal government and 
also made a reference to polygamy which Linn char- 
acterizes as “mild language,” and which Tullidge de- 
scribes as “‘a rebuke (to) the community relative to 
their peculiar religious and social institutions.”’ 
Brigham Young, however, would brook no such 
language and took the floor in a towering rage and 
said to the judge: “Are you a judge, and can’t even 
talk like a lawyer or a politician?’ George Wash- 
ington, he went on to say, was first in war, and 
Young could handle a sword as well as Washington. 
“But you standing there, white and shaking now 
at the howls which you have stirred up yourself— 
you are a coward.” Ina later discourse, speaking 
of the behavior of the Mormons on this occasion 
he said: “They bore the insult like saints of God. It 
is true, if I had crooked my little finger, he would 
have been used up, but I did not bend it. If I had, 
the sisters alone felt indignant enough to have 
chopped him to pieces. . . . Every man that comes 
to impose on this people, no matter by whom sent, 
or who they are that are sent, lay the axe at the 
root of the tree to kill themselves. I will do as I 
said I would at last conference. Apostates, or men 


236 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


who never made any profession of religion, had 
better be careful how they come here, lest I should 
bend my little finger.” 

On September 20, 1851, Judge Brocchus wrote 
to a friend in the East: ‘How it will end I do not 
know. I have just learned that I have been de- 
nounced, together with the government and officers, 
in the bowery again today by Brigham Young. I 
hope I shall get off safely. God only knows. Iam in 
the power of a desperate and murderous sect.” 
Eight days later the three non-Mormon officers left 
Salt Lake City and returned to Washington, where 
they ‘made a report which set forth the autocratic 
attitude of the Mormon church, the open practice 
of polygamy, and the non-enforcement of the laws, 
not even murderers being punished.’ * The first 
contact of the federal government with the Mormon 
autocracy under Brigham Young had resulted un- 
happily and foreboded graver troubles yet to come. 


3. THE MORMON WAR 


Other federal officers were appointed and re- 
turned with reports that the laws could not be en- 
forced and other clashes arose during the years fol- 
lowing 1851 until complications thickened up into 
what became known as “the Mormon war” of 1857- 

det detailed documented account of the various conflicts and the 
“war” between the federal government and the Mormons is given 


by Linn in his Story, and the Mormon account of the same events 
is given by Tullidge in his History. 


EARLY HISTORY IN UTAH 237 


58. As these events became known in the East 
through reports of federal officials and newspaper 
correspondents, popular indignation arose to fever 
heat and Mormonism was seen to be a national men- 
ace and became a national issue. The Republican 
national convention in 1856 in its platform declared 
that “it is both the right and the duty of Congress 
to prohibit in the territories those twin relics of 
barbarism—polygamy and slavery.’ United States 
Senator Stephen A. Douglas, who had befriended 
the Mormons when they were in Illinois, with an 
eye to the Democratic presidential nomination in the 
Same year said in a speech at Springfield, IIl.: 
“When the authentic evidence shall arrive, if it shall 
establish the facts which are believed to exist, it will 
become the duty of Congress to apply the knife, and 
cut out this loathsome, ugly ulcer.”’ Surveyor Gen- 
eral Burr, in a report in February, 1857, declared: 
“The fact is, these people repudiate the authority 
of the United States in this country, and are in open 
rebellion against the general government.” And in 
the same year President Buchanan in his annual 
message said of the Mormon church and of Gover- 
nor Brigham Young: 


The people of Utah almost exclusively belong to this 
church, and, believing with a fanatical spirit that he is 
Governor of the Territory by divine appointment, they 
obey his commands as if these were direct revelations from 
heaven. If, therefore, he chooses that his government 
shall come into collision with the government of the 
United States, the members of the Mormon church will 


238 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


yield implicit obedience to his will. Unfortunately, exist- 
ing facts leave little doubt that such is his determination. 

In answer to all these allegations the Mormon 
leaders grew more defiant and violent in their lan- 
guage and threats. Mayor J. D. Grant, of Salt 
Lake City, in the Tabernacle on March 2, 1856, said, 
addressing certain weak-kneed Mormons: “They 
will threaten us with United States troops! Why, 
your impudence and ignorance would bring a blush 
to the cheek of the veriest camp-follower among 
them. We ask no odds of you, you rotten carcasses, 
and I am not going to bow one hair’s breadth to 
your influence.” And Brigham Young declared, “I 
said then, and I shall always say, that I shall be gov- 
ernor as long as the Lord Almighty wishes me to 
govern this people.” 

The sending of soldiers was the next logical and 
inevitable step, and soon after his inauguration 
President Buchanan appointed Alfred Cumming of 
Georgia Governor of Utah in place of Brigham 
Young and ordered troops to march to Utah to 
uphold the federal authorities. Two regiments of 
infantry, one regiment of cavalry and two batteries 
of artillery set out under General Albert Sidney 
Johnston in October, but before they reached Utah 
were overtaken by winter in the mountains and 
suffered severe distress. In November, the troops, 
which had been divided, were assembled at Camp 
Scott, where they spent the winter, Governor Cum- 
ming being with them. 


EARLY HISTORY IN UTAH 239 


The actual approach of troops threw the Mormon 
leaders into a frenzy of defiance. Brigham Young 
declared: “I am not going to permit troops here for 
the protection of the priests and the rabble in their ’ 
efforts to drive us from the land we possess... . 
You might as well tell me you can make hell into 
a powder house as to tell me that they intend to keep 
an army here in peace.” To Captain Van Vliet, 
who had been sent in July to visit Salt Lake City, 
Young said that “therefore he and the people of 
Utah had determined to resist all persecution, and 
that the troops now on the march for Utah could 
not enter Great Salt Lake Valley.” He then issued 
a proclamation beginning, ‘Citizens of Utah: we 
are invaded by a hostile force, who are evidently 
assailing us to accomplish our overthrow and de- 
struction,’ forbidding “all armed forces of every 
description from coming into this Territory, under 
any pretence whatever,” declaring martial law and 
ordering “that all forces of every description hold 
themselves in readiness to march at a moment’s no- 
tice to repel any and all such invasion.” The Nauvoo 
Legion was called out under Gen. D. H. Wells, 
and his first act was to send to the federal com- 
mander a copy of Young’s proclamation together 
with a letter from Young, saying, “By virtue of 
the authority vested in me, I have issued, and for- 
warded you a copy of, my proclamation forbidding 
the entrance of armed forces into this Territory. 
This you have disregarded. I now further direct 


240 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


that you retire forthwith from the Territory, by the 
same route you entered.” To this treasonable and 
impudent demand Col. Alexander, who had received 
the letter, answered: ‘I have only to say that these 
troops are here by the orders of the President of 
the United States, and their future movements and 
operations will depend entirely upon orders issued 
by competent military authority.” 

During the winter of 1857-58 the Mormons car- 
ried on a guerrilla war against the federals, way- 
laying their wagon trains and burning them and 
stealing their cattle and horses. Yet during this 
entire “war” there was no clash of arms and no 
lives were lost. 

At this point Col. T. L. Kane, of Philadelphia, 
who has been represented as a friend of the Mor- 
mons and it is even declared that he was baptized 
as a Mormon, appears as an intermediary between 
the federal government and forces and the Mor- 
mons.* Kane obtained from President Buchanan 
two letters as an introduction of his visit of inter- 
mediation to Salt Lake City, one recognizing his 
“desire to serve the Mormons by undertaking so 
laborious a trip,’ and in the other the President 
saying, “I would not at the present moment, in view 
of the hostile attitude they have assumed against the 
United States, send any agent to visit them on be- 
half of the government.” 


*Linn gives one account of Kane and his mission, Story, Chapter 
XIV, and Stenhouse, in his Rocky Mountain Saints, Chapter 
XXXIX, gives a somewhat different coloring to the story. 


EARLY HISTORY IN UTAH 241 


With these letters Kane proceeded to Salt Lake 
City and had an interview with Brigham Young and 
also went to Camp Scott and had interviews with 
Governor Cumming and General Johnston. These 
interviews opened the way for Governor Cumming 
to go to Salt Lake City and appear on the platform 
of the Tabernacle with President Young and ad- 
dress the Mormons. Some disturbing things oc- 
curred at this meeting, but the Governor declared 
that he had come to vindicate the national sover- 
eignty ‘‘and to exact an unconditional submission on 
their part to the dictates of the law.” 

Young had already realized that he could not 
maintain his stand, hitherto so defiantly proclaimed, 
against the United States government and troops 
and had counseled his people to remove from Salt 
Lake City and the northern part of the Valley, and 
about 30,000 of them packed up their goods and hur- 
riedly fled 50 miles south of the city to Utah Lake, 
a flight comparable in hardship and suffering with 
the passage across the plains and even with the 
“hand-cart expedition.” Young had threatened 
that if the troops came in, his people would go out, 
burning everything and leaving the Valley a desert, 
and he was contemplating a further flight to some 
still more inaccessible region. 

Governor Cumming now sent a report to Wash- 
ington to the effect that he had been favorably re- 
ceived by the Mormons and that the way was open 
for a settlement of the difficulties with them. Presi- 


242 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


dent Buchanan appointed two “‘peace commission- 
ers” to go to Salt Lake City and also issued a proc- 
lamation offering ‘“‘a free and full pardon to all 
who will submit themselves to the just authority 
of the federal government.’”’ These commissioners 
appeared in Salt Lake City in June, 1858, and after 
a conference with President Young and his asso- 
ciates reported as follows: 

We are pleased to state that the conference resulted 
in their agreeing to receive, quietly and peaceably, all the 
civil officers of the government, and not to resist them in 
the execution of the duties of their offices; and to yield 
obedience to the authorities and laws of the United States; 
that they offer no resistance to the army; that the officers 
of the army should not be resisted in the execution of their 
orders within the Territory. In short, they agreed that 
the officers, civil and military, of the United States, 
should enter the Territory without resistance, and exer- 
cise, peaceably and unmolested, all the functions of their 
various offices.® 

The army now, July, 1858, marched into and 
through the deserted and empty city and pitched 
their camp at Cedar Valley, forty miles to the west 
of Salt Lake City, and the same day Governor Cum- 
ming officially announced “the restoration of peace 
to the Territory.” Brigham Young now appealed 
to his followers to return, Governor Cumming 
joined in this endeavor, and these poor deluded peo- 
ple, that had fled almost like a flock of panic-stricken 
sheep at the word of their prophet, slowly crept 
back to their homes and fields. 

*Stenhouse, Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 395. 


EARLY HISTORY IN UTAH 243 


Thus ended “the Mormon war” without blood- 
shed but with the flag of the United States flying 
over Utah. Brigham Young’s blustering defiance 
of the federal government based on his belief or 
claim that he had founded an independent empire 
of his own, his promises that the Lord would bring 
them victory, and his predictions of destruction 
hurled at the federal troops, all proved false. He 
and his deluded followers acknowledged the sover- 
eignty of the United States, an acknowledgment 
resentfully given and enforced and obeyed at the 
point of the sword. 


CHAPTER XVI 
MORMONISM AND MURDER 


HE title sounds harsh and seems incredible and 
sharply raises the question of its justice, but it 
is true to historic fact and cannot be toned down or 
smoothed away. No charity can be stretched to 
cover it, rose-water will not sweeten it, and all the 
multitudinous seas will not wash out its crimson 
stain. It is to be applied, of course, only to the 
early days of Mormonism in Utah and not extended 
to the present time. 


I. THE DOCTRINE OF BLOOD ATONEMENT 


The seeds of this scarlet fruit were sown far back 
in doctrines that were bound to bring forth bloody 
deeds. We have already seen* that this dreadful 
doctrine, by which the Mormons claimed the right 
to put to death so as to extinguish in their own blood 
the guilt of unfaithful Mormons and of Gentiles, 
was publicly avowed in Salt Lake City in 1856 by 
Jedediah D. Grant, of the first presidency, and by 
President Brigham Young, and we give two more 
quotations from the public utterances of these high 


*Chapter VI, Section 5. 
244 


MORMONISM AND MURDER 245 


Mormon officials. In the Tabernacle, on March 12, 
1854, Grant delivered a long discourse on the sub- 
jest in which he declared: 


I wish we were in a situation favorable to our doing 
that which is justifiable before God, without any con- 
taminating influence of Gentile amalgamation, laws and 
traditions, that the people of God might lay the axe at 
the root of the tree, and every tree that bringeth not 
forth fruit might be hewn down. What! do you believe 
that people would do right, and keep the law of God, by 
actually putting to death the transgressors? Putting to 
death the transgressors would exhibit the law of God, no 
matter by whom it was done. 


Later in the same place he said: “We have been 
trying long enough with this people, and I go in for 
letting the sword of the Almighty to be unsheathed, 
not only in word, but in deed.” 

In the Tabernacle, on September 21, 1856, Brig- 
ham Young said: 


There are sins that men commit for which they cannot 
receive forgiveness in this world, or in that which is to 
come; and if they had their eyes open to their true con- 
dition, they would be perfectly willing to have their blood 
spilt upon the ground, that the smoke thereof might ascend 
to heaven as an offering for their sins, and the smoking 
incense would atone for their sins; whereas, if such is 
not the case, they will stick to them and remain upon them 
in the spirit-world. I know, when you hear my brethren 
telling about cutting people off from the earth, that you 
consider it is strong doctrine; but it is to save them, not 
to destroy them. 


These and many similar utterances were not said 
in secret but openly upon the platform of the Taber- 


246 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


nacle, and were revised and published in The Deseret 

News, the official Mormon newspaper in Salt Lake 
City, and afterwards were republished in the Jour- 
nal of Discourses in the office of the Millenmal Star 
in Liverpool, England, and in these official publica- 
tions they may be read to this day. 


2. THE PRACTICE OF THE DOCTRINE 


This bloody doctrine, that the Mormon Church 
could visit blood atonement upon the guilty, was not 
only preached, but it was practiced as it was intended 
to be. And the Mormon leaders were logical in first 
inflicting it upon their own members. In 1856 there 
broke out in Salt Lake City a fanatical movement, 
known as ‘The Reformation,” in which Grant and 
Young made charges against various members and 
sometimes against the people in general in the gross- 
est language. 


Meetings were held by all the “Quorums” of “High 
Priests,” “Seventies,” and “Bishops,” which were largely 
attended. The greatest zeal for the good of “‘the king- 
dom” and unquestioning obedience were manifested, and 
the weak in faith, the doubting and rebellious, were, 
with “Uncle Sam”’ and all the Gentiles, denounced without 
mercy. The confessions of the Saints were texts for dis- 
courses, and curses were hurled on them publicly. The 
revelations of the sins wormed out of them by the cate- 
chism and other methods adopted were astonishing, and 
a lower state of morals was discovered to exist than even 
the best informed could have suspected. . . . The con- 
fessions, as before observed, were groundwork for re- 


MORMONISM AND MURDER 247 


proofs, rebukes, and denunciations. Brigham Young in 
his speech put a motion as follows: “All you who have 
been guilty of adultery, stand .up.”’ To the surprise of 
some, and the chagrin of the presidency, more than three- 
fourths stood on their feet.? 


Such preaching and practices soon brought forth 
their proper fruit. Members against whom charges 
were made, without any trial or proof, were seized 
and whipped, dreadfully abused, and, in one instance, 
mutilated, or otherwise maltreated. Literal ‘‘blood 
atonement” was also inflicted. The strange fanat- 
icism went to such a length that victims themselves 
would voluntarily receive the death baptism of blood. 
Two such cases may be cited. A wife who had been 
guilty of adultery “consented to meet the penalty 
of her error, and while her heart was gushing with 
affection for her husband and her children, and her 
mind absorbed with faith in the doctrine of human 
sacrifice, she seated herself upon her husband’s 
knee, and after the warmest and most endearing em- 
brace she had ever known—it was to be her last— 
when the warmth of his lips still lingered about her 
glowing cheek, with his own right hand he calmly 
cut her throat and sent her spirit to the keeping of 
the gods. That kind and loving husband still lives 
near Salt Lake City, and preaches occasionally with 
great zeal. He seems happy enough.” ® 

Another equally incredible case is quoted by Linn 


2 Stenhouse, Rocky Mountain Saints, pp. 294-206. 
* Ibid., pp. 469. 


248 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


from Orson Hyde, who himself gave the first public 
intimation from the Tabernacle pulpit of the doc- 
trine of blood atonement. Rosmos Anderson, a 
Danish convert and immigrant, confessed to adul- 
tery with his step-daughter and “‘the council decided 
that he must die. Anderson was so firm in the Mor- 
mon faith that he made no remonstrance, simply 
asking half a day for preparation. His wife pro- 
vided clean clothes for the sacrifice, and his execu- 
tioners dug his grave. At midnight they called for 
him, and, taking him to the place, allowed him to 
kneel by the grave and pray. Then they cut his 
throat, ‘and held him so that his blood ran into the 
grave.’ His wife, obeying instructions, announced 
that he had gone to California.” * 

Others who suffered the fatality of blood atone- 
ment were not such willing victims. William R. 
Parrish was a prominent supporter of Joseph Smith 
in Nauvoo and made the flight to the Salt Lake 
Valley. In March, 1857, rumors were afloat that 
he was disaffected and was contemplating removal 
with his family to California. Bishop Johnson, a 
polygamist with ten wives, with two companions 
visited Parrish at Springville and questioned him 
as to his intentions. At a meeting at Johnson’s house 
a letter was read from Brigham Young in which he 
stated that “the better way is to lock the stable door 
before the horse is stolen.” 

*Linn, Story, pp. 456-457. 


MORMONISM AND MURDER 249 


Two men, Durfee and Potter, were then sent to 
the Parrishes to find out when they proposed leaving 
and to deal with them in the manner they thought 
efficient. Parrish unsuspectingly went out for a 
walk with Potter and was led past a point where an 
armed Mormon by the name of Bird was concealed 
to shoot Parrish. Bird mistook Potter for Parrish 
and shot him dead, a striking instance of poetic jus- 
tice, and then grappled with Parrish, an old man, 
and stabbed him to death with a knife. Parrish had 
two young boys and when they appeared on the 
scene Bird shot one of them and the other escaped 
back to the house. When Mrs. Parrish appealed 
to Brigham Young he told her he “would have 
stopped it had he known anything about it,’ and 
when she persisted he advised her to “drop it.” 
Judge Cradlebaugh, Associate Justice of Utah Terri- 
tory, afterwards declared in the House of Represen- 
tatives, “I am justified in charging that the Mormons 
are guilty, and that the Mormon church is guilty, of 
the crimes of murder and robbery, as taught in their 
books of faith.” ° In the same spring, also, occurred 
the murder of several members of the Aiken party 
on their arrival from California in Utah, which 
Judge Cradlebaugh pronounced “peculiarly and 
shockingly prominent.” ° 


® Stenhouse, in Rocky Mountain Saints, pp. 464-467, gives the con- 
fession of J. M. Stewart, the counselor of Bishop Johnson, of the 
murder of Parrish and his boy. 

*Linn, Story, pp. 450-451. 


250 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


3. THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE 


We now come to the blackest blot and biggest 
splotch of blood on this Mormon record, known as 
“The Mountain Meadows Massacre,” which oc- 
curred on Friday, September 11, 1857, a day as in- 
famous as St. Bartholomew’s Day, August 24, 1572, 
when the signal was given for the massacre of the 
Huguenots in France. A party of thirty families 
and 140 persons was emigrating from Arkansas to 
California. They were pious and peaceable people, 
mostly Methodists, and a Methodist minister was 
with them. They did not travel on Sunday and pray- 
ers were held every morning and evening in their 
camp. They were proceeding through Southern 
Utah without molesting anybody, although after- 
wards the Mormons circulated false stories that they 
committed depredations and poisoned a spring. 
Young was now defying the federal government and 
on September 15, four days after the massacre, is- 
sued a proclamation that ‘‘no person shall be allowed 
to pass or repass into or through or from this terri- 
tory without a permit from the proper officer.” The 
passage of these Arkansans was quickly reported at 
headquarters and concerted measures were promptly 
taken against them. This antagonism first took the 
form of refusing to sell the emigrants any supplies 
or to do any trading with them, a business that the 
Mormons carried on with all travelers and from 


MORMONISM AND MURDER 251 


which they reaped rich profits. By reason of this 
refusal the Arkansas party were reduced to dire dis- 
tress with their food supplies almost exhausted and 
their horses and cattle completely fagged out. 

The Mountain Meadows are a valley 350 miles 
south of Salt Lake City and are about five miles 
long and one mile wide, a narrow defile that was a 
perfect natural trap for this tragedy. The worn- 
out and discouraged Arkansans pitched their camp 
in this place on Monday, September 7. Wrtih their 
depleted supplies they now faced seventy days of 
travel across a desert to San Bernardino. They had 
had friendly relations with the Indians and were 
unsuspicious of any attack, when on this Monday 
morning they were fired on by Indians from the 
surrounding heights and seven of their party were 
killed. Subsequent evidence made it plain that 
this Indian attack was instigated by the Mormons 
in the hope that the party would thus be extermi- 
nated while they would escape responsibility. The 
Arkansans, however, were not so easily overcome, 
but quickly drew their wagons around them and dug 
a rifle pit and thus were soon intrenched in a fort 
from which they successfully resisted the attack of 
the Indians and killed some of them. 

For four days the emigrants repulsed the Indians, 
when the Mormons saw that they must resort to 
other measures. On Friday morning they sent one 
of their number, William Bateman, with a flag of 
truce, and he was gladly received in the rude for- 


252 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


tress of the besieged Arkansans. The plan proposed 
by the Mormons was that the Arkansans should 
surrender all their arms and these with their 
wounded were to be placed in wagons and then a 
procession was to be formed and march to Cedar 
City. In this march the wagons were to lead, then 
were to follow the women and children, and then 
the men, with an armed Mormon beside each Arkan- 
san. Major John M. Higbee, of the Mormon mili- 
tia, was in command of the soldiers stationed 
nearby, and John D. Lee * a Mormon ranchman liv- 
ing in the neighborhood, was deputized by him to 
carry out the plan. Some of the Arkansans were 
suspicious of this surrender, but they were at the 
extremity of their means and there was little else 
for them to do than submit and commit themselves 
into the hands of the Mormons. 

At length all things were in readiness and the 
procession started on its fatal march. Lee after- 
wards made a full confession so that we have in- 
timate knowledge of the affair and of his feelings 
in discharging his part in it. At a given signal 
every armed Mormon was to kill the defenseless 
Arkansan by his side and thus exterminate the 
whole party at a stroke. Lee tells us how he felt 
just before this signal was given, in the following 


words: 

"A brief autobiography of Lee is given by Gibbs, Lights and 
Shadows, pp. 214-217. He was born in Illinois in 1812 and was con- 
nected with the Virginia Lees and was a relative of General Robert 
E. Lee, of the Southern Confederacy. He had nineteen wives, of 
which he gives a chronological list, and 64 children. 


MORMONISM AND MURDER 253 


I doubt the power of man being equal to even imagine 
how wretched I felt. No language can describe my feel- 
ings. My position was painful, trying, and awful; my 
brain seemed to be on fire; my nerves were for a moment 
unstrung; humanity was overpowering as I thought of 
the cruel, unmanly part that I was acting. Tears of bitter 
anguish fell in streams from my eyes; my tongue refused 
its office; my faculties were dormant, stupefied and dead- 
ened by grief. I wished that the earth would open and 
swallow me where I stood. 


The fatal signal, “Do your duty,” rang out along 
the line and each Mormon shot the Arkansan at his 
side, and other Mormons and Indians attacked the 
women and children who were walking, while Lee 
and his two companions killed the wounded men and 
older children in the wagons. Every last man and 
woman of the party was run down and killed, and 
only the seventeen young children, who “could not 
talk” and “were too young to tell tales,” were saved, 
and these were afterwards returned to their friends 
in Arkansas. 

The property of the party, estimated at upwards 
of $70,000, was now seized, and the corpses were 
robbed and stripped and left lying naked upon the 
ground. The next day the Mormons returned and 
made some effort at covering the bodies piled to- 
gether with earth, but they were soon seized by 
wild beasts and torn to pieces. Nearly two years 
later, in May, 1859, a federal army detail was sent 
to bury the remains and found a ghastly scene. 
“Many of the skulls bore marks of violence, being 


254 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


pierced with bullet holes, or shattered with heavy 
blows, or cleft with some sharp-edged instrument.” 


There are conflicting accounts as to just what 
happened among the Mormon leaders in this affair 
before and after the massacre. These leaders were 
Isaac Haight, president of the Cedar City stake, 
Major Higbee and Colonel Dame of the Iron Militia, 
Bishop Klingensmith, and John D. Lee. A few 
days before the slaughter they sent a messenger to 
Brigham Young for orders, but for some reason 
he did not return until several days after the affair 
was over. Ata council held on Thursday evening 
Major Higbee reported that President Haight’s or- 
ders were that “all the emigrants must be put out of 
the way.” All then knelt in prayer and Higbee gave 
Lee a paper ordering “the destruction of all who 
could talk.” The day after the massacre, these 
leaders “held another council, at which God was 
thanked for delivering their enemies into their 
hands; another oath of secrecy was taken, and all 
voted that any person who divulged the story of the 
massacre should suffer death, but that Brigham 
Young should be informed of it. It was also voted, 
according to Lee, that Bishop Klingensmith should 
take charge of the plunder for the benefit of the 
church.” ® 

John D. Lee was then sent to Salt Lake City to 
inform Brigham Young of the affair, but Young 
had had previous information and remarked to him, 


' 8Linn, Story, p. 527. 


MORMONISM AND MURDER 255 


“Isaac (Haight) has sent me word that, if they had 
killed every man, woman, and child in the outfit, 
there would not have been a drop of innocent blood 
shed by the brethren; for they were a set of mur- 
derers, robbers, and thieves.” After Lee had told 
his story Young said to him: 


This is the most unfortunate affair that ever befell 
the church. I am afraid of treachery among the brethren 
who were there. If any tells this thing so that it will 
become public, it will work us great injury. I want you 
to understand now that you are never to tell this again, 
not even to Heber C. Kimball. It must be kept a secret 
among ourselves. When you get home, I want you to set 
down and write a long letter, and give me an account of 
the affair, charging it to the Indians. You sign the letter 
as farmer to the Indians, and direct it to me as Indian 
agent. I can then make use of such a letter to keep off 
all damaging and troublesome inquirers. 


Lee further says, in his confession, that Young 
told him to call upon him the next morning, when 
Young said: 


I have made that matter a subject of prayer. I went 
right to God with it, and asked him to take the horrid 
vision from my sight if it was a righteous thing that 
my people had done in killing those people at the Mountain 
Meadows. God answered me, and at once the vision was 
removed. I have evidence from God that he has over- 
ruled it for good, and the action was a righteous one and 
well intended. 


Thus Brigham Young, on the confession of John 
D. Lee, a prominent Mormon leader in the affair, 
was in complicity with this crime in that he, accord- 


256 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


ing to his own statement, was accessory to it and 
sanctioned it after the fact. But was Young in com- 
plicity with it or did he have any knowledge of it 
before the fact? Stenhouse investigated this ques- 
tion as thoroughly as he could. He wrote Young a 
letter telling him he was “preparing a work for 
publication” and asking him for his account of the 
affair, but he received no answer. In 1871 a series 
of letters appeared in the Corinne Reporter, a Gen- 
tile paper published about sixty miles north of Salt 
Lake City, signed “Argus,” which directly accused 
Brigham Young of responsibility for the massacre. 
Stenhouse knew the author of the “Argus” letters 
and says he had been for thirty years a Mormon 
priest and that he assured Stenhouse that “before a 
federal court of justice, where he could be protected, 
he was prepared to give evidence of all that he 
asserted.” 

The official Mormon explanation of the massacre 
is that it was wholly an Indian attack for which the 
Mormons had no responsibility. ‘The apostles,” 
says Stenhouse, “who have spoken and written upon 
this painful subject, have endeavored to fasten the 
guilt solely upon the Indians, but this was a grave 
error, as well as being directly and palpably false.” 
John Henry Evans, Instructor in Church History 
in the Brigham Young University, Salt Lake City, 
in his One Hundred Years of Mormonism, a book 
that bears the official endorsement of a Mormon 
committee, says in a footnote, “This wretched affair 


MORMONISM AND MURDER 257 


is not discussed here, because, strictly speaking, it is 
not a part of Mormon history,” and in the text he 
says that these murders, “like everything else that 
was disagreeable, were laid at the door of the 
church,’ and made “a pretext to solidify the ele- 
ments of discontent.” This is said by an “instruc- 
tor in church history” in an official Mormon book in 
the face of the documented history of the crime and 
the detailed confessions of John D. Lee and Bishop 
Klingensmith! , 
Stenhouse says: 


The dominant theory among the intelligent Mormons 
was that Brigham Young had not himself ordered the 
massacre, but that he feared its investigation, as the 
men who did the deed were his brethren in the faith, 
and were in official relations with him, and that the 
massacre being brought before a court it would doubtless 
lead to the execution of men who might plead that it 
was the teachings of the Tabernacle that had rendered 
them capable of the perpetration of such a terrible crime. 


And Stenhouse’s own conclusion on this point is 
as charitable as it could well be: 


Whatever differences of opinion may exist between 
former members of the Church and the Prophet, no 
proper-minded person among them desires to see any 
wrong imputed to Brigham Young of which he is inno- 
cent; and of the responsibility of this massacre, above all 
other things, his bitterest enemy should be pleased to see 
him exonerated.® 

® Stenhouse’s whole account of this affair is very full and impar- 


ete thoroughly documented, Rocky Mountain Saints, Chapter 


258 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


It was twenty years before even partial justice 
fell upon this bloody deed. In 1874 a better federal 
law regulating the courts in Utah was passed, and 
Lee, Dame, Haight, Higbee, and Klingensmith, and 
others were indicted. Lee was dragged out of his 
hiding place and put on trial. On the first trial the 
jury disagreed, and on the second he was found 
“guilty of murder in the first degree.” On March 
23, 1877, he was taken to Mountain Meadows that 
on the very spot where the crime was committed it. 
might with poetic justice be expiated. Standing 
beside his coffin Lee “made a brief farewell speech 
in which he denied any intent to do wrong, and 
placed the blame where it justly belonged. He 
claimed, and rightly, too, that he had been betrayed 
—and sacrificed in the interest of the church to 
which he had given his whole life.” *° He calmly 
stood up, the rifles rang out over the Meadows, and 
he fell dead beside his rude coffin. A cairn of stones 
was piled up over the grave in which the bones of 
the 120 victims of the massacre were buried and in 
its center a beam fifteen feet high was planted and 
on its cross-tree was painted: “Vengeance is mine, 
saith the Lord, and I will repay it.” This has long 
since disappeared, removed, it is said, by order of 
Brigham Young. 

* Gibbs, Lights and Shadows, p. 235. 


MORMONISM AND MURDER 259 


4. EXPLANATION OF THIS DOCTRINE AND SPIRIT 


What is the explanation of the murderous spirit 
and deeds of these Mormon leaders? Were they 
cold-blooded and saturated with conscienceless mal- 
ice above other men of like circumstances and pas- 
sions with themselves? We cannot think so. They 
were men of New England origin and traditions and 
had come out of the orthodox churches. They were 
men of the average education and conscience of 
their day. And they were generally above the aver- 
age in ability and forceful personality as has been 
abundantly proved by their arduous deeds and by 
the masterful way in which they had rescued the 
remnants of their ruined religious adventure from 
the madness of mobs in Illinois and transported them 
across trackless regions to Salt Lake Valley and 
had already turned it from a desert to fruitful fields 
and planted it with cities. The explanation of these 
murderous deeds, then, must be found in the reli- 
gious obsession which turned them into bigoted and 
blind fanatics that dulled and destroyed all their 
ordinary sense of reason and right. This view is 
well expressed by Gibbs, who wrote with inside 
knowledge and yet with the restraint of truth and 
charity. He says: 

The impelling force—motive—to the perpetration of 
crime is, by mortal ethics, presumed to be the chief factor 


in determining what is justice to criminals. John D. Lee 
was, at heart, not a murderer. Nor were the fifty-five 


260 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


white participants murderers under the common definition. 
They were devout Mormons and believed that they were 
obeying the instructions of the representatives of proph- 
ets, seers and revelators, who were in daily communion 
with the Creator of the universe. Call them crazy fanat- 
ics, but not murderers in the generally accepted term. 
Let your anathemas fall on those who promulgated the 
damnable doctrine of unquestionable obedience and blood- 
atonement, and on those of the present-day “prophets” 
who enunciate, or endorse, the doctrine that a man “lies 
in the presence of God,” because he declines to surrender 
his temporal rights along with his spiritual being.** 


The phenomena of such religious obsession have 
not been and are not now rare in history. Did not 
Samuel “hew Agag in pieces before the Lord” and 
Paul “verily think that he ought” to “persecute unto 
death” the disciples of Jesus and were not his hands 
stained with the blood of Stephen and other mar- 
tyrs? Did not Roman religionists put to death the 
early Christian martyrs, and then did not these 
Christians in time burn one another as heretics? 
Coming into our own country and close to our day 
and religious kindred, did not a Christian judge pro- 
nounce guilty and our Puritan forbears hang nine- 
teen wretched women as witches in New England 
Salem? Has this spirit even yet wholly disappeared 
from our orthodox churches? Do we not now see 
manifested by some Christian ministers a spirit of 
intolerance and bigotry and bitterness against other 
Christian brethren that carries in its bosom seeds 
that in earlier days would have borne the scarlet 

* Lights and Shadows, p. 235. 


MORMONISM AND MURDER 261 


blossoms of bloody deeds? “I have never heard of a 
crime,” said the pure and dispassionate Emerson, 
“that I myself might not have committed.” This 
does not justify or even excuse the dreadful mas- 
sacre of Mountain Meadows and other Mormon 
murders, but it should enable us to understand the 
psychology of their time and spirit and temper with 
charity our judgment of their deeds. 


CHAPTER XVII 
MORMONISM DURING THE CIVIL WAR 


HE breaking out of the American Civil War 

was hailed by the Mormon leaders with un- 
concealed and openly-expressed delight. This could 
have been predicted with the certainty of a solar 
eclipse from their relations with the federal gov- 
ernment. Their political position and ambition 
from their early days was that they were the in- 
spired founders of an independent empire or King- 
dom of God, which was a theocracy and absolute 
autocracy, owning allegiance to none and claiming 
sovereignty over all human governments even 
around the world. ‘‘Any people,” declared Orson 
Pratt, “attempting to govern themselves by laws 
of their own making, and by officers of their own 
appointment, are in direct rebellion against the King- 
dom of God,” meaning the “church founded by 
Joseph Smith.” * 

They attempted to carry out this theory with a 
high hand, as we have seen, in Missouri and Illinois, 
and especially in Utah, where they had defied the 
federal government and officials and troops and 
were brought into nominal subjection by the actual 


* Gibbs, Lights and Shadows, p. 108. 
262 


MORMONISM AND THE CIVIL WAR 263 


presence of a United States army. But they were 
only biding their time, and to this day they have 
not repudiated this doctrine of the absolute King- 
dom of God embodied in their political and religious 
system. ) 

Already in the national Republican platform of 
1856 polygamy and slavery had been pilloried to- 
gether as “the twin relics of barbarism,” and as 
slavery was now lifting its head in rebellion against 
the United States, polygamy took advantage of the 
situation to assume and assert the same attitude in 
the hope that both together might wreck the federal 
government and each set up its own sovereignty. 


I. MORMON TREASONABLE UTTERANCES 


The leaders of Mormonism were plain and defiant 
enough in their public declarations in both print and 
speech. Linn has gathered a page of these trea- 
sonable utterances as follows: 


The attitude of the Mormons toward the government 
at the outbreak of hostilities with the Southern states was 
distinctly disloyal. The Deseret News of January 2, 1861, 
said, ‘““The indications are that the breach which has 
been effected between the North and the South will con- 
tinue to widen, and that two or more nations will be 
formed out of the fragmentary portions of the once 
glorious republic.’”’ —The Mormons in England had before 
that been told in the Millennial Star (January 28, 1860) 
that “the Union is now virtually destroyed.” The ser- 
mons in Salt Lake City were of the same character. 
“General” Wells told the people on April 6, 1861, that 


264 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


the general government was responsible for their expul- 
sion from Missouri and Illinois, adding: “So far as we 
are concerned, we should have been better without a gov- 
ernment than such a one. I do not think there is a more 
corrupt government upon the face of the earth.” Brig- 
ham Young on the same day said: “Our present Presi- 
dent, what is his strength? It is like a rope of sand, 
or like a rope made of water. . . . I feel disgraced in 
having been born under a government that has so little 
power, disposition and influence for truth and right. 
Shame, shame on the rulers of this nation. I feel myself 
disgraced to hail such men as my countrymen.? 


Linn and Gibbs multiply utterances of this kind. 
Elder G. A. Smith said: “Mr. Lincoln now is put 
into power by that priestly influence; and the pre- 
sumption is, should he not find his hands full by the 
secession of the Southern states, the spirit of priestly 
craft would force him, in spite of his good wishes 
and intentions, to put to death, if it was in his power, 
every man that believes in the divine mission of 
Joseph Smith.” Later, on August 31, 1862, Brig- 
ham Young declared that “the nation that has slain 
the prophet of God will be broken in pieces like a 
potter’s vessel.” After the war was over Tullidge, 
the Mormon historian, said that “the Mormon view 
of the great national controversy, then, is that the 
Southern states should have done precisely what 
Utah did, and placed themselves on the defensive 
ground of their rights and institutions as old as 
the Union. Had they placed themselves under the 
political leadership of Brigham Young, they would 

2 Story, Pp. 543. 


MORMONISM AND THE CIVIL WAR 265 


have triumphed, for their cause was fundamentally 
right; their secession alone was their national 
crime.* This spirit continued through the war and 
when Lincoln was felled by an assassin’s bullet and 
all the nation was in tears, the Mormons were say- 
ing one to another, “’Tis the judgment of God on 
Abraham Lincoln. Had he lived he would have 
tried to fulfill his party’s pledge to destroy polygamy. 
The Almighty has removed him—praise to the Lord 
God of Israel.” * 


2. FEDERAL ACTION 


It was plain that such a nest of disloyalty in Utah 
could not long be tolerated though hidden behind the 
wall of the Rockies in the heart of the Wasatch 
Mountains and would soon call for action. Yet Mr. 
Lincoln had his hands full and was slow to take on 
further trouble, saying, “I will let the Mormons 
alone if they will let me alone.” 

Action came in May, 1862, when the Third Cali- 
fornia Infantry and part of the Second California 
Cavalry under Colonel P. E. Connor appeared upon 
the scene and the colonel issued an order directing 
commanders of posts, camps and detachments to 
arrest and imprison, until they took the oath of 
allegiance, ‘“‘all persons who from this date shall be 
guilty of uttering treasonable sentiments against the 


* Life of Brigham Young, Chapter XXIV. 
* Gibbs, Lights and Shadows, p. 255. 


266 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


government,’ and declaring, “Traitors shall not 
utter treasonable sentiments in this district with im- 
punity, but must seek some more genial soil, or re- 
ceive the punishment they so richly deserve.’ 
Threats were uttered against the federal troops that 
they should not approach Salt Lake City, but Colonel 
Connor marched them into the public square and 
then pitched his tents within sight of the Mormon 
capital with his guns trained on Brigham Young’s 
official residence. 

Stephen S. Harding, of Indiana, arrived as gov- 
ernor of the territory in July and on December 8 
read his first message to the legislature. Congress 
had just passed and Mr. Lincoln had signed on July 
2 an act “to prevent and punish the practice of 
polygamy in the territories,” and Governor Hard- 
ing called attention to it in his message, saying he 
desired to do so ‘in no offensive manner or unkind 
spirit,’ and declared that ‘no community can hap- 
pily exist with an institution so important as that 
of marriage wanting in all those qualities that make 
it homogeneal with institutions and laws of neigh- 
boring civilized countries having the same spirit.” 
He referred to the recent marriage of a mother and 
her daughter to the same man as “no less a marvel 
in morals than in matters of taste,’ and warned them 
against such offenses against the federal laws. 

This message gave great offense to the Mormons 
as ‘‘an insult offered to their representatives,” ° and 

*Tullidge, History of Salt Lake City, p. 305. 


MORMONISM AND THE CIVIL WAR 267 


the territorial legislature adjourned without sending 
to Governor Harding any appropriation bill, and 
on the next day, January 16, 1863, the legislature 
of the so-called State of Deseret, which still claimed 
to be in existence as the legal government of the 
territory, met and received a message from “Gov- 
ernor”’ Brigham Young. A mass meeting was then 
held “for the purpose of investigating certain acts 
of several of the United States officials in the ter- 
ritory,’ and a committee was sent to Governor 
Harding and Judges Drake and Waite asking them 
to resign and leave the territory. Of course the 
impudent demand was peremptorily refused, Judge 
Drake telling John Taylor, a member of the com- 
mittee who was not a naturalized American citizen, 
that it was a special insult for him, a citizen, to be 
asked by a foreigner to leave any part of the Re- 
public, and saying to the committee, ‘““Go back to 
Brigham Young, your master, that embodiment of 
sin, shame, and disgust, and tell him that I neither 
fear him, nor love him, nor hate him—that I utterly 
despise him. Tell him, whose tools and tricksters 
you are, that I did not come here by his permission, 
and that I will not go away at his desire nor by his 
direction.” In the Tabernacle, on March 8, 1863, 
Brigham Young in a heated harangue said, “Is there 
anything that could be asked that we would not do? 
Yes. Let the present administration ask us for a 
thousand men, or even five hundred, and I’d see them 


268 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


d d first, and then they could not have them. 
What do you think of that ?” 

In this critical situation the Mormon Prophet was 
moved to take to himself another wife and Amelia 
Folsom was ‘‘sealed” to him after much persuasion 
and many arts had been used to effect his purpose. 

The tension between the military officers and 
Brigham Young was growing acute and the Prophet 
had reason to believe that he was about to be ar- 
rested. The polygamous marriage he had just con- 
summated was then made the occasion and the 
means of what Stenhouse designates some “smart 
practice” by which the impending arrest was clev- 
erly averted. One of the brethren accused the 
Prophet of having violated the anti-polygamy law 
and the grand jury, composed of Mormons, promptly 
found no indictment and discharged Young. He 
was thus placed ‘“‘beyond the reach of the military 
officers’ and the Prophet was dexterously extri- 
cated from a threatening situation. But the same 
grand jury that acquitted Young censured Governor 
Harding and voted Camp Douglass ‘‘a nuisance”! 

As the Civil War drew to its close and it was seen 
that the Union would stand, the Mormon leaders 
began to cool down in their outspoken disloyalty and 
prepared to accept the inevitable. They even joined 
in a celebration of Union victories at Camp Doug- 
lass on March 4, 1865, and at the assassination of 
President Lincoln a memorial service was held in 
the Tabernacle and the city was draped in mourning. 





CHAPTER XVIII 


BRIGHAM YOUNG, MONARCH 
OF MORMONISM 


RIGHAM YOUNG, President, Prophet, Seer, 
and Revelator, was now at the height of his 
power and reigned as monarch of Mormonism until 
his death in 1877 at the age of seventy-six years. 
He had successfully negotiated the rocks and rapids 
that stretched in a tortuous and troubled stream 
from the collapse in Illinois across the plains into 
the Great Salt Lake Valley and had established his 
throne on his personal power. We shall sketch some 
of the principal events in these closing years. 


I. GENTILE IRRUPTION AND BUSINESS MONOPOLY 


The westward movement of immigration was 
greatly increased after the Civil War and flowed 
into and through Great Salt Lake Valley in a swell- 
ing tide. Mormonism had sought seclusion and im- 
munity from the outer world, but now even the walls 
of the Rocky Mountains could not resist and keep 
out the Gentile flood. The coming of the Union 
Pacific Railroad and other railway lines cut through 


the mountains and leveled the protecting dykes and 
269 


270 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


let the sea in. The attractions of the valley and 
the glowing visions of wealth in the mines and in 
the region stretching on into California, a land of 
golden promise dyed in the hues of the sunset, lured 
streams of settlers, gold-seekers and all classes of 
adventurous spirits. 

The Mormons, while sending for and bringing in 
immigrants of their own kind, viewed with un- 
friendly eyes these Gentile new-comers who were 
unassimilable aliens in their social order and enemies 
of their peculiar institution. Brigham Young took 
measures to isolate these foreign elements and con- 
fine business to his own people. Non-Mormons 
opened stores and often offered superior goods at 
lower prices and thus attracted Mormon trade. 
Young denounced and fought these stores fiercely. 
In a discourse delivered on March 28, 1858, he urged 
the people to use only home-made material and said: 
“Let the calicoes lie on the shelves and rot. I would 
rather build buildings every day and burn them 
down at night, than have traders here communing 
with our enemies outside, and keeping up a hell all 
the time, and raising devils to keep it going. They 
brought their hell with them. Wecan have enough 
of our own without their help.” A large portion of 
the Tabernacle sermons were devoted to “freezing 
out” the Gentiles. A system of close espionage was 
established to carry out this policy. ‘‘Surveillance 
was offensively placed upon their stores, in order 
to discover who among the Saints would persist in 


BRIGHAM YOUNG, MONARCH OF MORMONISM 271 


trading withthem. The police in sauntering to and 
fro could see the offenders and report them, and 
with these official eyes upon them, it took courage 
in the people to deal with a Gentile, Jew, or Apostate 
—especially with the latter.” * 

Yet competition with the Mormon stores persisted 
and grew into serious proportions. Notable among 
such opponents were four Walker brothers, who 
with their mother had been lured as converts from 
England and grew dissatisfied with Mormonism and 
its doings. They set up business on their own ac- 
count, and as they presently refused to pay a tithe 
of their annual income to ‘‘the church,” which was 
synonymous with Brigham Young, they quickly fell 
under his displeasure and every means was used to 
ruin them. Police espionage was doubly increased 
and Brigham Young called a meeting of the mer- 
chants at City Hall in October, 1868, and there it 
was determined that the words ‘‘Holiness to the 
Lord,” over an all-seeing eye, should be written on 
every sign-board, and be put over the door of every 
Mormon store, so that “the wayfaring man, though 
a fool, might not err therein.” ? But “‘stolen waters 
are sweet,” and “the Saints’ persisted in stealing 
into forbidden Gentile stores and buying better 
goods at lower prices. 

It was a critical situation and Brigham Young 
was quick to sense it and see that it imperiled the 


*Stenhouse, Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 623. 
2 Tbid., p. 625. 


272 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


very existence of his “empire.” He conceived and 
projected “the idea of uniting all the Mormon mer- 
chants in one grand cooperative commercial scheme, 
by which he hoped finally to be able to freeze out the 
Gentiles.” This organization was effected in 1869 
and was called the “Zion Cooperative Mercantile 
Institution,’ commonly known as the “Z. C. M. I.” 
and which is in operation to this day. Brigham 
Young was made president with a vice-president and 
five directors, and pressure was now brought to bear 
on all the faithful to come into this combination. 
“The Mormon merchants who did not join the Co- 
operative Institution and bring their goods there, 
and who did not put ‘Z. C. M. I.’ and the all-seeing 
eye over their doors, soon had a little of the Gentile 
experience. The police walked before their stores, 
and, by their presence, morally intimidated the 
Saints from buying of the rebellious brother.” 
Branch stores were started in the wards, but these 
did not prosper and failed and the stockholders iost 
their money. | 

The Prophet was now out for profit, and the min- 
ister of religion was a merchant rapidly making 
money. The success of the project exceeded his 
utmost dreams, and his mercenary instinct made 
Brigham Young a financial magnate and the richest 
man in his domain. Tullidge, the Mormon his- 
torian, says: 

It was the moment of life or death to the temporal 
power of the church. . . . The organization of Z. C. M. I. 





BSS 


Photo by C. R. Savage 


MONUMENT TO BRIGHAM YOUNG AND THE PIONEERS 
SALT LAKE CITY 





BRIGHAM YOUNG, MONARCH OF MORMONISM 273 


at that crisis saved the temporal supremacy of the Mormon 
commonwealth.” * 


And Stenhouse says: 


“The grand experiment served the Prophet well. It 
made him at once the business associate of the leading 
Mormon merchants—the men of energy and success— 
and, without the toil and trouble of creating a business, 
he suddenly found himself a sharer in their profits, and 
in another particular, ‘Z. C. M. I.’ was specially useful, 
for, in the varied branches of this commerce, his numer- 
ous sons, sons-in-law, and special friends have found 
permanent occupation.”’ * 


Zion’s Cooperative Mercantile Institution has 
grown through the years into a huge organization 
that has entered many fields of manufacture and 
merchandise and thrown its tentacles out over all 
the Mormon states, and the Church of the Latter- 
Day Saints of Jesus Christ is now a vast and wealthy 
business concern, and this has added immensely to 
its religious and social and political power. 


2. REVOLT LIFTS ITS HEAD 


Extremes beget extremes. Action is equaled 
by reaction. Tyranny breeds revolt, and out of the 
loins of despotism liberty is born. Brigham Young’s 
dictation and domination, ever growing more arbi- 
trary and oppressive by feeding on its own insolence, 


* History of Salt Lake City, p. 385. 
“Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 628. 


274 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


at length stirred opposition and resentment, until 
revolt lifted its head right in his own camp. ‘These 
Mormons, however deluded they were under the 
spell of their Prophet, after all were human. Their 
native American sense of right had not been wholly 
eradicated out of them and at last asserted itself. 

The ‘‘New Movement,” as it came to be called, 
sometimes also called “The Reformation,” began 
with the founding of the Utah Magazine, a purely 
literary journal established by the Mormon elders 
W. S. Godbe, a merchant, and E. L. T. Harrison, 
who had launched a previous literary adventure and 
had some literary aspirations. The magazine met 
with little success and was apparently nearing the 
end of its career, when Godbe and Harrison went 
ona trip to New York for rest and recreation. The 
journey had unexpected and far-reaching conse- 
quences. Like Saul, the persecutor on his way to 
Damascus, these two elders, when they got away 
from the Mormon environment and atmosphere, 
began quietly to think about and discuss their faith, 
and then doubts arose in their minds. Stenhouse, 
who was soon involved with them in the “New 
Movement” and had inside knowledge of it, will tell 
us of the experience of Godbe and Harrison: 


Away from Utah, and traveling together over the 
plains, the old rumbling stage-coach afforded the two 
friends, as every traveler in those days experienced, an 
excellent opportunity for reflection. On the way they 
“compared notes’ respecting the situation of things at 


BRIGHAM YOUNG, MONARCH OF MORMONISM 275 


home, and spoke frankly together of their doubts and 
difficulties with the faith. . . . Both of them had strug- 
gled to preserve their faith in Mormonism, but the con- 
tents of the Book of Mormon, critically viewed, was a 
terrible test of credulity, and many of the revelations of 
“the Lord” savored too much of Joseph Smith, and 
abounded with contradictions, and were very human at 
that. As for Brigham, “he was a hopeless case; many 
of his measures were utterly devoid of even commercial 
sense, and far less were they clothed with divine wisdom 
—in all his ways he was destitute of the magnanimity of 
a great soul, and was intensely selfish.” To their devel- 
oped intellects now, Mormonism seemed a crude jargon 
of sense and nonsense, honesty and fraud, devotion and 
cant, hopeless poverty to the many, overflowing wealth 
to the favored few—a religion as unlike their conceptions 
of the teachings of Christ, as darkness to light.° 


This picture of Mormonism drawn by these two 
elders in 1868 is still true to life today. 

Arrived in New York, the two elders in the seclu- 
sion of their hotel began to have “‘spirit communica- 
tions’ and “revelations” of their own that confirmed 
their doubts, and they returned to Salt Lake City 
and disclosed the story of their adventure and of 
their “revelations” to a small circle of confidential 
friends, but especially to Elder Eli B. Kelsey, a Mor- 
mon of twenty-seven years’ standing, and Elder 
Edward W. Tullidge.® “Believing that Brigham,” 
continues Stenhouse, “had set out to build up a dy- 
nasty of his own, and that he, like David the king, 

° Rocky Mountain Saints, pp. 630-631. 


*Tullidge afterwards wrote The History of Salt Lake City, which 
was censored by Mormon authorities before its publication. 


276 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


looked upon the people as his ‘heritage,’ these four 
Elders resolved to sap the foundations of his throne, 
and to place before the people the best intelligence 
they could command to enable them to realize their 
position.” 

A quiet propaganda against the autocracy of the 
Prophet was now carried on in the Utah Magazine, 
which took on new life as an organ that ventured 
to raise questions of doubt and suggest reforms. 
This critical attitude was at first veiled and made 
no personal reference to the Prophet. The editors 
began to hint that ruthless suppression of liberty of 
thinking should give way to independent thought 
and free speech. ‘There is,’ wrote Harrison, “one 
fatal error, which possesses the minds of some; it 
is this: that God Almighty intended the priesthood 
to do our thinking.. . . Our own opinion is that, 
when we invite men to use free speech and free 
thought to get into the church, we should not call 
upon them, or ourselves, to kick down the ladder by 
which they and we ascended to Mormonism. They 
should be called upon to think on as before, no mat- 
ter who has or has not thought in the same direction. 
... Think freely, and think forever, and, above 
all, never fear that the ‘Ark’ of everlasting truth 
can ever be steadied by mortal hand or shaken.” 

While the “New Movement” was under way, two 
sons of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Alexander H. 
and David Hyrum, who had gone off with the Re- 
organized Church of Latter-Day Saints, appeared in 


BRIGHAM YOUNG, MONARCH OF MORMONISM 277 


Salt Lake City, and called upon Brigham Young to 
discuss with him the subject of polygamy to which 
they were opposed. There were several hundred of 
these ‘“‘Josephites,”’ as they were called, in the city 
at the time, and many of the followers of Brigham 
Young himself regarded them as the rightful suc- 
cessors of their father. Young was quick to see 
this dangerous rivalry and took decisive measures to 
cut it short. He refused to permit Alexander and 
Hyrum to speak in the Tabernacle and told them 
that they could not enter the kingdom except by be- 
ing baptized by one of Brigham’s elders, receiving 
from him the priesthood and acknowledging that 
polygamy was divine. He then told them that their 
mother Emma was “a liar, yes, the damnedest liar 
that ever lived,” and declared that she had tried to 
poison her husband the Prophet. 

The upshot of the matter was that Godbe and 
Harrison were excommunicated. The “reformers” 
now became more outspoken in their opposition to 
Young and in time started the Tribune, which is 
now The Salt Lake Tribune, a strictly non-Mormon 
newspaper of great ability and wide influence. 

The “New Movement” did not result in any con- 
siderable reform of Mormonism, but it did in no 
small degree impair the despotism of Brigham 
Young. Stenhouse appraises its outcome and value 
as follows: 


But for the boldness of the Reformers, Utah today 
would not have been what it is. Inspired by their ex- 


278 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


ample, the people who have listened to them disregarded 
the teachings of the priesthood against trading with or 
purchasing of the Gentiles. The spell was broken, and, 
as in all such experiences, the other extreme was for a 
time threatened. Walker brothers regained their lost 
trade, and, in one year from the time that this “New 
Movement”’ began, the stores of these merchants were so 
crowded during the Conference, that it was with difficulty 
their patrons could be served. . . . Reference should be 
made to elders, some of whom had to steal away from 
Utah, for fear of violent hands being laid upon them 
had their intended departure been made known, who are 
today wealthy and respected gentlemen in the highest 
walks of life, both in the United States and in Europe.’ 


3. THE PROPHET AT THE HEIGHT OF HIS POWER 


The comparative failure of the “New Movement’’ 
to curb the arbitrary power of the Prophet only in- 
flamed his arrogancy and he now rose to the zenith 
of his reign. He was known as “The Lion of the 
Lord” and his two residences in which he housed 
his wives were named the “Beehive House” and the 
“Lion House,” “concerning which,’ say Cannon 
and Knapp, “a thousand stories were told.” He 
certainly looked and acted the part of a “Lion,” 
but whether a “Lion of the Lord” was far from be- 
ing unanimously conceded. Growing wealth and 
influence caused him to assume and assert regal airs 


"Rocky Mountain Saints, pp. 644-645. Cannon and Knapp think 
the New Movement effected very little, saying that it ‘‘cost the 
Mormon kingdom the cession of not a single dogma, and the loss 
of scarcely a hundred members. Seldom, if ever, has so formidable 
seeming an attack on ecclesiastical ramparts been so quickly and 
finally repelled.” Brigham Young, p. 352. 


BRIGHAM YOUNG, MONARCH OF MORMONISM 279 


and he moved around in his domain with something 
of the pageantry and the mien of a monarch. 

An effort was made at this point in his career 
to catch the Prophet in the net of the law by federal 
officials. In 1871 James B. McKean, then recently 
appointed chief justice of the territory of Utah, dis- 
played uncommon zeal in haling the Mormon 
Prophet before the bar of justice. In September a 
grand jury was drawn under federal law composed 
entirely of Gentiles which indicted Young for “lewd 
and lascivious cohabitation” under a territorial law 
which the Mormons had passed and which they 
claimed did not apply to polygamous marriages. 
Still more offensive to the Mormons was the ad- 
dress of Judge McKean in refusing a motion to 
quash the indictment, in which he said: 

It is proper to say that while the case at bar is called 
“The People versus Brigham Young,” its other and real 
title is “Federal Authority versus Polygamic Theocracy.” 
The government of the United States, founded upon a 
written constitution, finds within its jurisdiction another 
government claiming to come from God—imperium in 
impertio—whose policy and practices are, in grave par- 
ticulars, at variance with its own. The one government 
arrests the other, in the person of its chief, and arraigns 
it at the bar. A system is on trial in the person of 
Brigham Young. Let all concerned keep this fact con- 


stantly in view; and let that government rule without 
a rival which shall prove to be in the right.® 


This language from the bench may have strained 
the limits of judicial impartiality and propriety, but 
* Brigham Young, p. 364. 


280 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


it bluntly told the truth. The case against Young, 
however, failed when the Supreme Court of the 
United States decided that the district courts of 
Utah were territorial courts and that juries must 
be drawn in accordance with territorial law and this 
invalidated the procedure against Young. Judge 
McKean, however, was not through with the 
Prophet and had the satisfaction of sending him to 
jail for a day for contempt of court in the case of 
the suit of his wife Ann Eliza for divorce, which 
will be referred to later. 

These “‘persecutions” “The Lion of the Lord” re- 
guarded only as annoying bites and stings of pestif- 
erous insects, and he moved on in his course with 
something of the pose and the pomp of a conquering 
monarch. Wealth was now flowing into his coffers 
in increasing streams. The church tithes, the collec- 
tion of which was constantly pressed upon the ofh- 
cials of the stakes as their supreme duty, came 
wholly into his hands and were treated by him as 
his private funds without any accounting. It is 
estimated that “this tithing fund must have 
amounted to nearly a million dollars a year” and he 
“left a fortune well above two million dollars in the 
valuation of that time—potentially it was worth tens 
of millions.” ® The business ramifications of the 
“Z. C. M. 1.” and the establishment of new lines of 
commercial expansion opened new fountains of 

* Cannon and Knapp, Brigham Young, pp. 379-380. 


BRIGHAM YOUNG, MONARCH OF MORMONISM 281 


wealth, in the profits of which the Prophet did not 
fail to get his share. j 

Young constantly had his eye out roving over the 
regions to the north and the south and he planted 
stakes from Canada to Mexico and before his death 
his missionaries had invaded both of these countries. 
Any Mormon colony in any secluded mountain val- 
ley or canyon or far-flung settlement up near the 
snows of Canada or down in the tropic heat of Mex- 
ico at once became self-supporting and a new center 
of further propaganda and a new fountain of wealth 
for the Prophet, for streams quickly began to flow 
back from these springs, however distant, to the 
reservoir of Young’s private treasury. On every 
Mormon mill and granary and other edifice in Utah 
were nailed the hammered iron letters “B. Y.” as the 
sign of his ownership. “He did not extend this 
definite mark of ownership into his provinces; but 
if Brigham had chosen to use a flag, and if he had 
chosen to plant it wherever his power was supreme, 
it could have floated in an almost unbroken line 
through the Rocky Mountain region, from Alberta 
to Sonora.” *° 

Once a year the Prophet traveled through his 
Utah domain from the north to the south of the 
territory. “His visit to the northern settlement 
lasted usually three or four weeks; that to the south- 
ern towns about twice as long. He was accom- 
panied on these trips by a considerable number of 

* Cannon and Knapp, Brigham Young, p. 354. 


282 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


his courtiers, and by one or more of his wives. 
They were royal progresses, and were treated as 
such. At each town, the visiting monarch was met 
by deputations of citizens and officials; and in each 
place where he stopped for more than a casual halt, 
he gave clear indications of his imperial pleasure.” ** 

His constant care and urgent direction to his offi- 
cials and followers was to fasten their hold on the 
land and extend their possessions—and pay their 
tithes. “Get choice land; till it intelligently; get 
water-power for your mills; file on coal-mines and 
quarries; build good meeting-houses and comfort- 
able homes; pay your tithes—pay your tithes. Make 
no unnecessary political conflict with your Gentile 
neighbors; but hold your own—and our own is all 
that comes within your reach.” 

Thus Brigham Young rose on the steps of deeds 
done from a poor New England boy and member of 
the Methodist church to the Prophet of a church 
largely of his own creation, a business promoter and 
millionaire magnate and the practical monarch of 
all he surveyed. 


4. THE WIVES OF THE PROPHET 


The prophets and apostles of the Mormon faith 
believed in polygamy and they practiced it in liberal 
measure. Joseph Smith was sealed to twenty-seven 
wives, Heber Kimball was reputed to have twenty, 

“Cannon and Knapp, Brigham Young, p. 383. 


BRIGHAM YOUNG, MONARCH OF MORMONISM 283 


and many others had equally numerous harems. 
Brigham Young was not noted for economy in mat- 
ters pertaining to his personal comfort and pleasure 
and he did not exercise severe self-restraint in the 
number of his wives. Just how many he had at the 
end of his life is not certain and perhaps he had some 
doubt about the number himself. At the death of 
Joseph Smith he had five or six, and of Smith’s 
reputed twenty-seven wives he married six of his 
widows. At the expulsion from Nauvoo he had 
sixteen and “perhaps twenty at the first settlement 
of the Salt Lake Valley.”” In Pictures and Biogra- 
plies of Brigham Young and His Wives, published 
by J. M. Crockwell of Salt Lake City, “by authority 
of Young’s eldest son and of seven of his wives, but 
not complete,” there are the names of twenty-five 
women, with the date of each marriage and the num- 
ber of children born to each wife, the whole number 
of children being forty-four.”” 

The last name in this list is Ann Eliza Webb who 
was married to Young in April, 1868. With ref- 
erence to this wife, Cannon and Knapp say: 


Ann Eliza Webb posed as Brigham’s nineteenth wife, 
and custom has fixed that as her number. There is just 
as good warrant for calling her the twenty-ninth, or the 
hundred and nineteenth. At the time of her marriage 
there were known to be eighteen other women with whom 
Brigham had sustained or was sustaining marital rela- 
tions. Careful search probably would have doubled the 
number, and not even Brigham could have told how many 


” This list is given by Linn in Story, p. 580. 


284 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


women he had “sealed.” The marriage ceremony was 
sufficient to cover cohabitation in every case; and no 
domestic census-taker could have drawn the line between 
the three sorts of spouses.?* 


Evidently the number of Brigham’s wives is fad- 
ing into misty uncertainty and is as variable and ex- 
pansive as sacred numbers in the hands of some 
“prophetic” manipulators. 

Cannon and Knapp give a page of pictures of 
Brigham’s wives, with “The Lion of the Lord” pos- 
ing in the midst of them, and their number is twenty- 
one. ‘The pictures are not a very tempting exhibi- 
tion and advertisement of the attractions of 
polygamy. It seems to prove, however, that the 
monarch of Mormonism had a monopoly of the mat- 
rimonial market and it cannot be denied that “The 
Lion of the Lord” had an uncommon carnal appe- 
tite and was not sparing in providing for its 
gratification. 

Stenhouse lets us see into the process by which 
the Prophet went about the business of winning 
new wives. Rival younger men often had to be 
gotten out of the way, and if a hint was not enough 
to induce a contestant for a coveted hand to retire 
gracefully, he would be sent off on a mission op- 
portunely received “from the Lord.’”’ The case of 
Amelia Folsom, who became one of his favorite 
wives, illustrates his wily arts. 


* Brigham Young, pp. 368-360. 


BRIGHAM YOUNG, MONARCH OF MORMONISM 285 


Miss Folsom could play the piano and sing “Fair 
Bingen on the Rhine.” Such accomplishments, at that 
time, were rare and appreciated. Brigham had not taken 
to himself a wife for a goodly number of years, and 
“had got all the wives he wanted”; but Amelia attracted 
him. His carriage lingered by her mother’s door for 
hours nearly every day. He got barbered and perfumed 
every morning, and replaced his homespun garments with 
broadcloth. Twice the Endowment House was warmed 
and made comfortable for the marriage : twice the Prophet 
was disappointed. Finally the young woman was told 
that it was the will of “the Lord,” but the Prophet would 
trouble her no more. Alarmed with the fear of possibly 
doing wrong, she sent for the Prophet, the Endowment 
House was again warmed, and the “sealing” was 
performed.** 

How did Brigham Young conduct his extensive 
marital establishment? He kept his first and legal 
wife in the residence which stood apart from others 
known as the “White House.” Most of his harem 
were housed in the “Lion House,” a long building 
having twenty rooms on the first floor in which each 
wife had her separate quarters with sleeping rooms 
above for the children and dining room and other 
rooms below. He then maintained separate houses 
for his two or three favorites, who would hold their 
place in his affections and attentions for a time and 
then be displaced by new-comers who were younger 
and more comely women. Many of his wives he 
seldom saw except when they all assembled in the 
general dining room or in the parlor for evening 
prayer. He was a generous provider and declared 

“ Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 605. 


286 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


of his wives that “he would provide them comfor- 
table homes, clothe them properly, and give them 
what they wanted to eat’’; but he would be “master 
of his own actions.” 

The rivalries in such an establishment and espe- 
cially the displacement of one favorite by another 
were necessarily attended by frictions and disap- 
pointments and heart-burnings, for these women 
were stillhuman. Brigham himself recognized fac- 
tions and quarrels among his wives, for in a dis- 
course delivered on September 21, 1856, he 
declared: 


And my wives have got to do one of two things; either 
round up their shoulders to endure the afflictions of this 
world, and live their religion, or they may leave, for I 
will not have them about me. I will go into heaven alone, 
rather than have scratching and fighting all about me. 
I will set all at liberty. ‘‘What, first wife too?” Yes, I 
will liberate you all. I know what my women will say; 
they will say, “You can have as many women as you 
please, Brigham.” But I want to go somewhere and do 
something to get rid of the whiners. . . . Sisters, I am 
not joking.?° 


The case of Ann Eliza Webb, who attained na- 
tional celebrity as “No. 19,” but is No. 25 in the 
authorized Pictures and Biographies, throws light 
upon this phase of the Prophet’s life. She was a 
young divorcée whom her father urged in marriage 
upon Brigham in 1868. The Prophet was not 
strongly inclined to the proposal as he was growing 

* Linn, Story, p. 585. 


BRIGHAM YOUNG, MONARCH OF MORMONISM 287 


old and had several young and beautiful wives, but 
finally yielded and the dashing young “‘grass widow” 
was added to his harem. Her period of favoritism 
was brief and in 1873 she gave the Prophet a new 
experience by bringing suit against him for divorce 
on the grounds of neglect, cruel treatment and deser- 
tion, alleging that he had property worth eight mil- 
lions of dollars and an income of not less than forty 
thousand dollars a year and asking an allowance of 
one thousand dollars a month and a final award 
of two hundred thousand dollars. Brigham sur- 
prised everybody by meeting the charge with a 
denial of a full legal marriage and averring that his 
property did not exceed six hundred thousand dol- 
lars and that his total income was not more than six 
thousand dollars a month. Judge McKean ordered 
Young to pay Ann Eliza three thousand dollars 
counsel fees and five hundred dollars a month ali- 
mony, and when he failed to obey sent him to jail 
for contempt of court for one day. The case lin- 
gered on for four years and passed through the 
hands of five judges, when in April, 1877, Judge 
Schaeffer “decreed that the polygamous marriage 
was void, annulled all orders for alimony, and as- 
sessed the costs against the defendant.”’ 

After her release from Mormonism Ann Eliza 
took the lecture platform and for ten years lectured 
all over the country more than a hundred and fifty 
times a year, exposing “that accursed system with its 
polygamous, murderous and other criminal prac- 


288 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


tices.” In 1908 after retiring from the lecture plat- 
form she published a large volume of over 500 pages 
in which she gives much inside information as to 
Mormonism, especially in relation to Brigham 
Young’s polygamous family. Six chapters are de- 
voted to a detailed account of the Prophet’s mar- 
riage to each of his wives and of his experience with 
them and of their experience with him and with 
one another. Chapter XXXIV is entitled “Brig- 
ham’s Plural Wives and Their Troubles,” and they 
had plenty of them. The “Lion House” concealed 
many a tragedy of an unhappy life and broken heart. 
A few sentences may be quoted with reference to 
one of them, Clara Chase, whose name does not 
appear among the authorized Biographies: 


Clara Chase was usually spoken of as the ‘‘maniac.” 
Brigham at first treated her with great consideration. As 
long as he devoted himself personally to her, she was 
comparatively cheerful and content, and tried to be happy; 
but when he neglected her she was almost desperate, and 
wandered about in a half-dazed fashion, weeping and 
moaning, and calling on God to forgive her. . . . When 
she saw her husband, she cursed him as the cause of 
her downfall. . . . She died in the midst of her ravings.?® 


* Life in Mormon Bondage: A Complete Exposé of Its False 
Prophets, Murderous Dantes, Despotic Rulers, and Hypnotized, 
Deluded Subjects, by Ann Eliza Young, 19th Wife of Brigham 
Young, pp. 389-390. Among the Mormon secrets revealed in this 
book is the process of being initiated into “the degrees” of the 
“Endowment House” which Ann Eliza went through. Much curi- 
osity has been felt about this secret initiation and grave suspicions 
have been entertained concerning it. As meticulously described by 
Ann Eliza it contains nothing immoral, but is a long rigmarole of 
fantastic mummeries which only excited her ridicule and contempt. 
However, she declares it contains or did contain an oath “to enter- 


BRIGHAM YOUNG, MONARCH OF MORMONISM 289 


Women are usually even more devoted than men 
to any “peculiar institution” to which they are com- 
mitted as a social inheritance, and therefore Mor- 
mon women have mostly professed themselves to be 
satisfied with polygamy and few have publicly com- 
plained against it. Yet Ann Eliza is not the only 
one who turned against it and disclosed its inmost 
secrets and tragedies. When Mr. and Mrs. T. B. 
H. Stenhouse left the Mormon church at the time of 
the “New Movement,’ Mrs. Stenhouse unbosomed 
herself in a book entitled Tell It All. Mrs. C. B. 
Waite, who lived with her husband in Salt Lake 
City in 1862-63 when her husband was Chief Jus- 
tice of Utah, wrote The Mormon Prophet, which 
gives much inside information, reporting a conver- 
sation she had with one Mormon wife who said: 


Oh, it is hard, very hard; but no matter we must bear 
it. It is a correct principle, and there is no salvation 
without it. We had one (wife) but it was so hard, both 
for my husband and myself, that we could not endure it, 
and she left us at the end of seven months. She had 
been with us as a servant several months, and was a 
good girl; but as soon as she was made a wife she became 
insolent, and told me she had as good a right to the house 
and things as I had, and you know that didn’t suit me 
well. 


tain an everlasting enmity to the United States government, and to 
disregard its laws so far as possible; we swore that we would use 
every exertion to avenge the death of our Prophet Joseph Smith and 
his brother Hyrum upon the Gentile race, by whose means they were 
brought to their unhappy fate, and to teach our children to foster 
this spirit of revenge also.” Page 283. 


290 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


There is no concealing the hard and cruel and 
repulsive features of polygamous Mormonism, what- 
ever exceptions it may have presented, and the 
Prophet himself had many thorns in his flesh and 
many of his wives had cups of exceeding bitterness. 


5. THE DEATH OF THE PROPHET 


Brigham Young died in Salt Lake City in the Bee- 
-hive House on August 29, 1877, in his seventy- 
seventh year. Six days before he had a severe at- 
tack of cholera morbus which developed into inflam- 
mation of the bowels, to which he had been subject, 
and he steadily grew worse and died uttering the 
repeated word, “Joseph! Joseph! Joseph!” The 
body lay in state in the Tabernacle from Saturday, 
September 1, until Sunday, when the funeral, which 
drew thousands from all quarters of Mormondom, 
was held. John Taylor, President of the Quorum 
of Apostles, who was to succeed him in the presi- 
dency of the church, delivered the funeral oration, 
in which he expressed the confidence that the death 
of the great Prophet would leave no gap that could 
not be filled and that Zion would march with accel- 
erated momentum to its rightful sovereignty over 
the world. The body was buried in the heart of 
the city which had grown up around him and which 
he had largely created, and the grave is now marked 
by a block of granite weighing many tons and is 
surrounded by a wrought-iron fence. That block 


BRIGHAM YOUNG, MONARCH OF MORMONISM 291 


of granite acts as though it were a great magnet 
sending out subtle attractions to the ends of the 
earth and it draws to it every day visitors and tour- 
ists some of whom stand before it in reverence and 
devotion and others who look upon it with curiosity. 

Thus ended the strange career of the man who 
began life in Vermont as a poor boy with little 
schooling and no advantages, at twenty-one joined 
the Methodist church, at thirty-one was baptized 
into the faith of Joseph Smith and joined the Church 
of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and at sev- 
enty-seven died as President, Prophet, Seer and 
Revelator of his church, the husband of twenty-five 
or more wives, a multimillionaire and the virtual 
monarch of all he surveyed. 

Brigham Young appeared at an opportune mo- 
ment. Joseph Smith conceived a scheme and 
launched an enterprise which his ill-balanced brain 
and weak fumbling hands could never have carried 
to successful realization; in fact, he steered his ship 
upon the rocks. Brigham Young seized the wreck- 
age and by his foresight and practical judgment and 
forceful personality and iron will carried it across 
the plains and planted it in a secluded valley rimmed 
around with mountains, where it had immunity from 
the surrounding sea of civilization and time to get 
rooted and grow into self-support and a vigorous 
propaganda. He tightened his grip upon it and 
subordinated it to his own will and sovereignty. 
More and more his word was law and gospel. His 


292 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


practical sagacity seized upon the land and joined 
field to field, picking out the fertile valleys and the 
mill-sites and the mines. The Prophet also devel- 
oped into a business promoter and wedded Mormon- 
ism to Mammon with singular success. All sources 
of wealth poured streams into his own coffers. The 
city he founded grew around him like a fair plant 
and bloomed into a splendid blossom that is now one 
of the beautiful cities of the country and the world. 
He pushed his settlements northward into Canada 
and southward into Mexico and flung the tentacles 
of his system out over the neighboring territories of 
Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico 
and Colorado, threw them across the Atlantic into 
Europe and over the Pacific into the Sandwich 
Islands and with them encircled the world. He was 
a despotic emperor within his own empire, attended 
with royal pageantry and ruling with an iron hand. 
For a time he treated even the United States govern- 
ment with contempt and defiance or held it at bay, 
and only the glitter of bayonets in the streets of his 
capital city and cannon trained upon his private resi- 
dence brought him to acknowledge the federal 
authority. 

Yet this man had few gifts and narrow limita- 
tions. He lacked the higher and finer elements of 
human greatness. His “mind was uncorrupted by 
books” and “he probably never read a book, outside 
of the Mormon faith, in his life.”?’ His ethical 


* Stenhouse, Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 638. 


BRIGHAM YOUNG, MONARCH OF MORMONISM 293 


sense was blunt and blinded by self-interest, and 
his nature was coarse and hard. His vanity was 
abnormal and enormous, and his sensuousness was 
deeply ingrained and imperious, brooking little re- 
straint. Yet he had masterful control over himself 
and over his subjects within the limits of his domi- 
nant objective. Hecould compress all currents into 
the channel of his will to make the Mormon system 
supreme and sovereign. He dreamed of world em- 
pire as truly as Alexander and Napoleon, but with 
little basis of reason and fact. Yet he played the 
part admirably in the sight of his own people. He 
comported himself and did things in a grand manner 
and strode his domain like a colossus. His subjects 
bowed before him in almost abject subservience, for 
they believed he held the keys of salvation in this 
world and of destiny in the next. His assumption 
of supreme authority was superb, his very impu- 
dence was so amazing as to be amusing, and at times 
he looked and acted “The Lion of the Lord” as he 
ruled with lordly pose and power over his obsequious 
people and shook his frightful mane and roared ter- 
rifyingly at his enemies. If he had had a rich sense 
of humor he could have laughed uproariously at 
himself. Yet he was never a small man and at times 
commands our respect. 

Conscientious he no doubt was, as are all religious 
founders and fanatics, though at times he must have 
been playing the part of a hypocrite. How much 
he really believed in the “revelations” and “Bible” 


294 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


of Smith cannot be known, and he evidently had lit- 
tle faith in his own power of “revelation” as he had 
the sense to restrain his gift to one deliverance. But 
he was an adroit opportunist and turned everything 
into a means to his own ends. Nota dreamer but a 
doer, Joseph Smith and his Bible were good enough 
for his purpose, and he used them with masterly 
skill and power. 

He had a kind and degree of greatness which is 
evidenced by the arduous test of deeds done. His 
power to bring things to pass was the pragmatic 
chain by which he bound his followers to himself and . 
kept them in bondage. As an empire builder he 
achieved a success that stands as a witness to him 
to this day. 

Yet he set himself against the civilization and 
ethical spirit of his age, and judged by this test he 
cannot be counted great or good. He sought to 
undermine monogamy and restore one of the twin- 
relics of pagan and pre-Christian barbarism. He 
did what he could to turn the clock of human prog- 
ress and rational religion back three thousand years. 
He tried to change the front of the universe rear- 
ward, and it does not move in that direction. The 
stars were against him, and hardly was he gone 
until the key-stone fell out of the arch of his system 
in the surrender of the practice of polygamy. The 
ultimate fate of his system and of his personal fame 
is yet to be seen. 


CHAPTER XIX 
THE SURRENDER OF POLYGAMY 


5 Osha strength, the perpetuity, and the destiny of the 
nation rests upon our homes, established by the law 
of God, guarded by parental care, regulated by parental 
authority, and sanctified by parental love. These are not 
the homes of polygamy. 

The mothers of our land, who rule the nation as they 
mold the characters and guide the actions of their sons, 
live according to God’s holy ordinances, and each, secure 
and happy in the exclusive love of the father of her 
children, sheds the warm light of true womanhood, un- 
perverted and unpolluted, upon all within her pure and 
wholesome family circle. These are not the cheerless, 
crushed, and unwomanly mothers of polygamy. 

The fathers of our families are the best citizens of 
the Republic. Wife and children are the sources of the 
patriotism, and conjugal and parental affection beget 
devotion to the country. The man who, undefiled with 
plural marriage, is surrounded in his single home with 
his wife and children, has a status in the country which 
inspires him with respect for its laws and courage for 
its defence. These are not the fathers of polygamous 
families. 


These bold words were uttered by President 
Grover Cleveland in his first message to Congress 
in 1885. They voiced the deep, pent-up, long ac- 
cumulating convictions and feelings of the American 


people and rang out over the land like the strokes of 
295 


296 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


a great iron-throated bell tolling the death-knell of 
Mormon polygamy. Federal legislation had already 
made gestures against the system, but this language 
had teeth in it which foretold a decisive attack. 


I. THE MORMON SYSTEM OF POLYGAMY 


We have already traced the development of the 
Mormon practice and doctrine of polygamy. It be- 
gan as an irregular practice and ugly rumors con- 
nected it with Joseph Smith at Kirtland, Ohio, it 
was Officially denied at Nauvoo in 1844, but it was 
openly practiced in that town in 1845, and Smith’s 
“revelation” on the subject was dated July 12, 1843, 
and this was announced to a church conference at 
Salt Lake City on August 28, 1852. It had by this 
time become the general and ostentatious doctrine 
and practice of Mormon officials and was advocated 
and urged on all their people. 

Writing in 1857 in his book on Mormonism,’ 
Elder John Hyde thus enumerated the homes and 
wives of some of the leaders: 


A very pretty house on the east side was occupied by 
the late J. M. Grant and his five wives. A large barrack- 
like house on the corner is tenanted by Ezra T. Benson 
and his four ladies. A large but mean-looking house to 
the west was inhabited by the late Parley P. Pratt and 
his nine wives. In that long, dirty row of single rooms, 
half hidden by a very beautiful orchard and garden, 
lived Dr. Richard and his eleven wives. Wilford Wood- 


*Page 34. 


THE SURRENDER OF POLYGAMY 297 


ruff and five wives reside in another large house still 
further west. O. Pratt and some four or five wives 
occupy an adjacent building. Looking toward the north, 
we espy a whole block covered with houses, barns, gar- 
dens, and orchards. In these dwell H. C. Kimball and 
his eighteen or twenty wives, their families and depen- 
dents. 


Evidence that such harems were often torn with 
internal jealousy and strife and unhappiness, some 
of which has already been given, could be multiplied 
indefinitely from the many Mormon books and ad- 
missions and confessions on the subject. Several 
more are here given from Linn. Brigham Young 
himself, speaking in the Tabernacle on September 
21, 1856, said: “Men will say, ‘My wife, though a 
most excellent woman, has not seen a happy day 
since I took my second wife; no, not a happy day 
for ayear.’” J. M. Grant declared that there was 
“scarcely a mother in Israel’ who would not, if they 
could, “break asunder the cable of the church in 
Christ; and they talk it to their husbands, to their 
daughters, and to their neighbors, and say that they 
have not seen a week’s happiness since they became 
acquainted with that law, or since their husbands 
took a second wife.’ And the coarse and plain- 
spoken H. C. Kimball thus defined the duty of 
polygamous wives: “It is the duty of a woman to be 
obedient to her husband, and, unless she is, I would 
not give a damn for all her queenly right or author- 
ity, nor for her either, if she will quarrel and lie 


298 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


about the work of God and the principles of 
plurality.” ? 

On what grounds did and do the Mormons re- 
habilitate and justify a relic of barbarism that had 
long since been cast off and left behind by advancing 
civilization and that is attended with so much opposi- 
tion and unhappiness? The original suggestion of 
it probably came to Joseph Smith when he was mak- 
ing his “Bible,” which involved some study of the 
Old Testament, and “‘it is not at all improbable that 
Smith’s natural inclination toward such a doctrine 
as polygamy secured a foundation in his reading of 
the Old Testament license to have a plurality of 
wives.’ The Mormons still maintain that polygamy 
has upon it the sanction of the Old Testament patri- 
archs, but they quietly ignore the fact that the New 
Testament positively forbids any such practice. 
Even in the Old Testament polygamy, along with 
slavery, is not commanded or expressly sanctioned 
but is dealt with as an existing ancient social institu- 
tion which could not be suddenly uprooted, but it 
was regulated and mitigated and started towards 
extinction and monogamy. 

Frank J. Cannon, who was brought up in the 
Mormon church and has intimate knowledge of its 
doctrine and practice, devotes a chapter to a “Study 
of Polygamy,” ° and states the case as follows: 


* Story, pp. 584-585. 
* Brigham Young and His Mormon Empire, Chapter XXIV. — 


THE SURRENDER OF POLYGAMY 299 


Mormon apologists for polygamy claim for it four 
points of superiority over monogamy. These are: 

That polygamy tends to a more rapid increase of 
population. 

That polygamy gives the only chance of wifehood and 
honorable motherhood to millions of women. 

That polygamy prevents prostitution. 

That polygamy secures better safeguards for mother 
and child during pregnancy and the nursing period. 


Mr. Cannon convincingly refutes each and all of 
these four claims. The first is disproven by the fact 
that “in practically every case, it may be predicted 
that the woman who becomes a plural wife will bear 
fewer children than she would bear in monogamy.” 
The second becomes laughable in the face of the fact 
that “in the nation at large, there are 105 males to 
every hundred females.” The third is not borne 
out by the facts of experience. And the fourth is 
discredited by the fact that ‘three generations of 
Mormon children born in polygamy” do not “out- 
strip in either health or intelligence the offspring of 
monogamous marriages.” 

Whatever justification there may have been for 
polygamy in barbarous times * and however it was 
permitted among the ancient Hebrews because of 
“the hardness of their hearts” or their low stage of 
ethical development, yet Christianity set its whole 
doctrine and spirit against it and it has been driven 

* Polygamy probably arose along with slavery out of the custom 
of sparing the lives of captives in war instead of killing them, and 


this way of disposing of them was at that time a step forward in 
humanity. 


800 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


from all the higher levels of civilization. The con- 
science of Christendom condemns it and revolts 
against it. It is a monstrous wrong and cruelty 
to womanhood. The unity and peace of the home 
depend upon it and the children need the undivided 
care and love of both parents. It is truly a relic 
of barbarism and had to go along with slavery. 

The American people were a bit slow to realize 
what was going on among the Mormons in their 
early days. They received with ridicule the rumors 
of Smith’s “Bible” and heard of the troubles in Mis- 
souri and at Nauvoo without attaching much signifi- 
cance to them. “Joe” Smith’s candidacy for the 
presidency of the United States was only a “joke,” 
and Brigham Young’s “Mormon war” was more 
amusing than serious. Other issues were crowding 
to the front. The Civil War absorbed the national 
consciousness and conscience. But when these great 
issues were out of the way, the American people be- 
gan to realize that Mormonism was more than a 
comedy and had already turned to tragedy. They 
saw that the fair city the Mormons had reared like a 
splendid blossom in the Great Salt Lake Valley was 
really a great cancer planted in the very bosom and 
heart of the continent and was rapidly sending its 
noxious roots out through neighboring territories 
and threatening to poison the life-blood of the na- 
tion. This conviction grew in depth and intensity 
until it took the form of decisive action. 


THE SURRENDER OF POLYGAMY 301 


2. THE COURSE OF LEGISLATION AGAINST POLYGAMY 


The first federal law against polygamy was em- 
bodied in the Morrill Bill which was passed by Con- 
gress in 1862 and signed by President Lincoln. It 
limited its application to bigamy and the punishment 
for its violation consisted of a fine not to exceed 
$5,000 and imprisonment for not more than a year. 
Little action resulted from this law as in 1867 the 
presiding officers of the Utah legislature petitioned 
Congress to repeal it, declaring that “the judiciary 
of this territory has not, up to the present time, tried 
any case under said law, though repeatedly urged to 
do so by those who have been anxious to test its 
constitutionality.” However, in 1874, the law hav- 
ing been strengthened in that year by an act known 
as the Poland Bill, George Reynolds, Brigham 
Young’s private secretary, was convicted of bigamy, 
and, being released on a technicality, was the next 
year again convicted and fined and imprisoned. 

This case came up to the Supreme Court of the 
United States in 1878 and the Mormons endeavored 
to have the law declared unconstitutional on the 
ground that it interfered with liberty of religious 
belief. But the court sustained the conviction in an 
opinion in which it reviewed the history of polygamy 
in England and the United States. It was formerly 
a capital offense in England as it also was in Vir- 
ginia as late as 1788. The court declared: 


802 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


In the face of all this evidence, it is impossible to 
believe that the constitutional guarantee of religious free- 
dom was intended to prohibit legislation in respect to 
this most important feature of social life. . . . So here, 
as a law of the organization of society under the exclusive 
dominion of the United States, it is provided that plural 
marriages shall not be allowed. Can a man excuse his 
practices to the contrary because of his religious belief? 
To permit this would be to make the professed doctrines 
of religious belief superior to the law of the land, and 
in effect to permit every citizen to become a law unto 
himself. Government could exist only in name under 
such circumstances. 


In 1878 national interest received a fresh impulse 
towards some decisive action against polygamy by 
a mass meeting of women in Salt Lake City opposed 
to polygamy, which adopted an address “to Mrs. 
Rutherford B. Hayes and the women of the United 
States” and a petition to Congress, declaring that 
there had been more polygamous marriages in the 
last year than ever before in the history of the Mor- 
mon Church; that the Mormons had the balance of 
power in two territories and were plotting to extend 
it; and asking Congress “to arrest the further prog- 
ress of this evil.” 

Action was now urged on Congress by the next 
three Presidents of the United States. President 
Hayes, in his annual message in 18709, declared, 
“Polygamy can only be suppressed by taking away 
the political power of the sect which encourages 
and sustains it,’ and recommended “that Congress 
provide for the government of Utah by a Governor 


THE SURRENDER OF POLYGAMY 303 


and Judges, or Commissioners, appointed by the 
President and confirmed by the Senate, (or) that 
the right to vote, hold office, or sit on juries in the 
Territory of Utah be confined to those who neither 
practise nor uphold polygamy.” President Garfield 
in his inaugural in 1881 declared, “The Mormon 
church not only offends the moral sense of mankind 
by sanctioning polygamy, but prevents the adminis- 
tration of justice through ordinary instrumentali- 
ties of law,” and called for action that would not 
allow “any ecclesiastical organization to usurp in 
the smallest degree the functions and power of the 
national government.” And President Arthur in 
his annual message in December, 1881, referred to 
“this odious crime, so revolting to the moral and 
religious sense of Christendom,” and called for legis- 
lation. We have seen the strong language used by 
President Cleveland in his first annual message in 
1885. 

The Edmunds Bill, the first decisive blow struck 
at polygamy by Congress, was signed by President 
Arthur on March 22, 1881. Its provisions are sum- 
marized by Linn as follows: 


It provided, in brief, that, in the territories, any person 
who, having a husband or wife living, marries another, 
or marries more than one woman on the same day, shall 
be punished by a fine of not more than $500, and by 
imprisonment, for not more than five years; that a male 
person cohabiting with more than one woman shall be 
guilty of misdemeanor, and be subject to a fine of not 
more than $300 or to six months imprisonment, or both; 


304 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


that in any prosecution for bigamy, polygamy, or un- 
lawful cohabitation, a juror may be challenged if he is 
or has been living in the practice of either offence, or 
if he believes it right for a man to have more than one 
living and undivorced wife at a time, or to cohabit with 
more than one woman; that the President may have 
power to grant amnesty to offenders, as described, before 
the passage of this act; that the issue of so-called Mor- 
mon marriages born before January 1, 1883, be legit- 
imated; that no polygamist shall be entitled to vote in any 
territory, or to hold office under the United States; that 
the President shall appoint in Utah a board of five persons 
for the registry of voters, and the reception and counting 
of votes. 


This law was amended and strengthened in 1887 
by additional provisions, dissolving the corporation 
called the Perpetual Emigration Company and for- 
bidding the legislature to pass any law to bring per- 
sons into the territory, dissolving the corporation 
known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day 
Saints and giving the Supreme Court of the terri- 
tory power to wind up its affairs, and annulling all 
laws regarding the Nauvoo Legion and all acts of 
the territorial legislature. 

The Edmunds law created Mormon excitement 
and indignation in Utah and was met with the deter- 
mination to evade and resist it in every way. Mor- 
mon preachers and newspapers flamed out against 
it and reiterated the divine nature of the “revela- 
tion” concerning polygamy and its obligatory char- 
acter and urged the people ‘‘to stand by their lead- 
ers in opposition to it.” ‘An Epistle from the First 


THE SURRENDER OF POLYGAMY 805 


Presidency to the officers and members of the 
church,” dated October 6, 1885, was issued, of which 
the following are a few specimen extracts: 


The war is openly and undisguisedly made upon our 
religion. To induce men to repudiate that, to violate its 
precepts, and break its solemn covenants, every encour- 
agement is given. The man who agrees to discard his 
wife or wives, and to trample upon the most sacred obli- 
gations which human beings can enter into, escapes 1m- 
prisonment, and is applauded; while the man who will 
not make this compact of dishonor, who will not admit 
that his past life has been a fraud and a lie, who will 
not say to the world, “I intended to deceive my God, 
my brethren, and my wives by making covenants I did 
not expect to keep,” is, beside being punished to the full 
extent of the law, compelled to endure the reproaches, 
taunts, and insults of a brutal judge. . . . Upward of 
forty years ago the Lord revealed to his church the prin- 
ciple of celestial marriage. . . . Who would suppose that 
any man, in this land of religious liberty, would presume 
to say to his fellow-man that he had no right to take 
such steps as he thought necessary to escape damnation? 
Or that Congress would enact a law which would present 
the alternative to religious believers of being consigned 
to a penitentiary if they should attempt to obey a law of 
God which would deliver them from damnation? 


With the First Presidency denouncing the Ed- 
munds law in these unmeasured terms, how was it 
obeyed? Linn, who is our chief authority at this 
point, summarizes the results of the law as follows: 


The records of the courts of Utah show that the 
Mormons stood ready to obey the teachings of the church 
at any cost. Prosecutions under the Edmunds law began 


306 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


in 1884, and the convictions for polygamy or unlawful 
cohabitation (mostly the latter) were as follows in the 
years named: 3 in 1884, 39 in 1885, 112 in 1886, 214 in 
1887, and 100 in 1888, with 48 in Idaho during the 
same period. Leading men in the church went into 
hiding—“under ground,” as it was called—or fled from 
the territory. As to the actual continuance of polygamous 
marriages, the evidence was contradictory. A _ special 
report of the Utah Commission in 1884 expressed the 
opinion that there had been a decided decrease in their 
number in the cities, and very little decrease in the 
rural districts. Their regular report for that year esti- 
mated the number of males and females who had entered 
into that relation at 459. The report for 1888 stated 
that the registration officers gave the names of 29 
females who, they had good reason to believe, had con- 
tracted polygamous marriages since the lists closed in 
June, 1887. 


In the face of this continued violation of the law 
federal legislation and enforcement kept drawing 
the noose tighter around the neck of polygamy. The 
Utah Commission, which entered upon its duties in 
August, 1882, proved an effective means of restrain- 
ing Mormon defiance, and removal from office, peni- 
tentiary walls and the threatened dissolution of the 
church organization and the forfeiture of its entire 
property were not shadows without substance or 
laws without teeth. Within two years after the 
Commission began business about 12,000 Mormon 
voters had been disfranchised, of the 1351 elective 
officers in the territory not one was a polygamist, 
and no municipal officers of Salt Lake City had ever 
had plural wives. 


THE SURRENDER OF POLYGAMY 307 


In the summer of 1890, Judge John W. Judd, 
after sentencing some fifty or sixty Saints to the 
penitentiary, said to them: 


I want to say a few words to you people before you 
depart to the penitentiary. You haven’t the appearance 
of criminals. And aside from the special offense for 
which you have received light sentences, you are a law- 
abiding people. But the laws of the United States have 
declared that polygamy and unlawful cohabitation are 
crimes. And I will say to you, in all kindness, that Uncle 
Sam is on top in this Territory, and you people have one 
of three alternatives—you can obey the law, leave the 
Territory, or go to the penitentiary.® 


In his report for 1890, Governor A. L. Thomas 
declared that the Mormon Church under its system 
could only define its position on polygamy by a pub- 
lic declaration by the President of the church, or by 
action by a conference, and “there is no reason,” 
he said, “‘to believe that any earthly power can ex- 
tort from the church any such declaration.” He did 
not know how soon this very thing would be done. 


3. THE MORMON MANIFESTO OF 1890 


Events of a menacing nature to polygamy now 
moved rapidly. In the summer of 1889 the non- 
Mormon element of Salt Lake City, organized as 
the “Liberty Party” under the leadership of Judge 
O. W. Powers, put George M. Scott in the field 


* Gibbs, Lights and Shadows, pp. 265-266. 


308 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


as a candidate for the mayoralty of the city. The 
Mormons made desperate efforts to defeat him by 
gathering as many of their voters as possible from 
neighboring regions into the city, but at the 
election on August 4 Scott was elected, and the 
next morning the Mormons read on the walls of 
Zion the ominous words, “Liberal Majority of 41— 
George M. Scott, Mayor. Mene, Mene, Tekel, 
Upharsin.’ The control of their own citadel had 
passed out of their hands, and this foreshadowed 
their doom. Having lost control at home they knew 
they could not long hold their own anywhere else. 
With all their defiance and bluff, they could not con- 
ceal from themselves that the game was lost. The 
ever increasing roar of the sea of indignation 
against polygamy throughout the country spread 
alarm through Mormondom and sounded the death- 
knell of the institution. The polygamists knew that 
angry waves were rising against them which even 
the dikes of the Rocky Mountains could not shut out. 
Bills of increasing stringency and hostility against 
polygamy kept turning up in Congress, and when 
on May 19, 1890, the Supreme Court of the United 
States affirmed the decision of the lower court con- 
fiscating the entire property of the Mormon Church 
and declaring that church to be an organized re- 
bellion, and when on June 21 the Senate passed a 
bill disposing of the real estate of the church for the 
benefit of the school fund,® the Mormon authorities 


*This confiscated property was afterwards restored to the church. 


THE SURRENDER OF POLYGAMY 309 


realized that they must take decisive action to save 
their institution and take it soon. 

President John Taylor succeeded President Brig- 
ham Young, and Apostle Wilford W. Woodruff 
succeeded Taylor to the Presidency. He was eighty- 
three years old, a polygamist who had refused to 
take the test oath and had been disfranchised, and 
he now appeared as the Moses to lead the Mormons 
across the Red Sea that rolled its angry waves be- 
fore them. He extricated his people out of their 
predicament by the bold stroke of issuing, on Sep- 
tember 25, 1890, a “manifesto” which plays an 
important part in this history. It began by announc- 
ing an untruth in declaring that “we are not preach- 
ing polygamy, nor permitting any person to enter 
into its practice,’ and it closed with the following 
important part of the proclamation: 


Inasmuch as laws have been enacted by Congress, 
which laws have been pronounced constitutional by the 
court of last resort, I hereby declare my intention to sub- 
mit to these laws, and to use my influence with the mem- 
bers of the church over which I preside to have them do 
likewise. 

There is nothing in my teachings to the church, or 
in those of my associates, during the time specified, 
which can be reasonably construed to inculcate or encour- 
age polygamy, and when any elder of the church has 
used language which appeared to convey any such teach- 
ings he has been promptly reproved. 

And now I publicly declare that my advice to the Lat- 
ter-Day Saints is to refrain from contracting any mar- 
riage forbidden by the law of the land. 


310 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


On October 6, 1890, the General Conference of 
the church, on motion of Lorenzo Snow, a polyg- 
amist and Apostle who succeeded Woodruff to the 
presidency of the church, unanimously adopted the 
following resolution, which was reaffirmed by the 
General Conference of October 6, 1891: 


I move that, recognizing Wilford Woodruff as Presi- 
dent of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 
and the only man on earth at the present time who holds 
the keys of the sealing ordinances, we consider him fully 
authorized, by virtue of his position, to issue the manifesto 
that has been read in our hearing, and which is dated 
September 24, 1890, and as a church in general con- 
ference assembled we accept his declaration concerning 
plural marriages as authoritative and binding.’ 


These General Conferences of the church, held in 
the Tabernacle, were each attended by upwards of 
ten thousand people, so that this thing was “not done 
in a corner.” 

The matter of harmonizing this action of the 
church with previous official “revelations” and 
teachings confronted the Mormon leaders and gave 
them great difficulty. In his “revelation” of polyg- 
amy, Smith declared: “Behold! I reveal unto you 
a new and everlasting covenant; it was instituted 
for the fulness of my glory; and he that receiveth 
a fulness thereof, must and shall abide the law, or 
he shall be damned, saith the Lord God.” Brigham 
Young declared in 1855, “Now, if any of you will 


*The manifesto is given in full by Gibbs, Lights and Shadows, 
DP. 273. 


THE SURRENDER OF POLYGAMY 311 


deny the plurality of wives, and continue to do so, 
I promise that you will be damned.” Charles W. 
Penrose, a Mormon hymn-writer and polygamist, 
said in 1875, “We did not originate the doctrine of 
‘celestial marriage’; we have no right to abolish it.” 

The manifesto itself contains no reference to any 
divine sanction for it and in fact it is only President 
Woodruft’s advice.” However, Mormon leaders 
found themselves pressed for some kind of authority 
or ground on which to rest the manifesto and pres- 
ently began to invent or at least put forth explana- 
tions that they had not mentioned before. George 
©. Cannon reverted to Smith’s “revelation” of Jan- 
uary 19, 1841, given out to excuse the failure to 
establish a Zion in Missouri, namely, that when 
their enemies prevent their performing a task as- 
signed by the Almighty, he would accept their effort 
to do so, and said that “it was on this basis’ that 
the manifesto had been issued. President Wood- 
ruff explained: “It is not wisdom for us to make 
war upon 65,000,000 people. . . . The Prophet or- 
ganized the church; all that he has promised in 
this code of revelations has been fulfilled as fast as 
time would permit. That which is not fulfilled will 
beer ® 

Thirteen months after the proclamation of the 
manifesto President Woodruff delivered a sermon 
in which he said with reference to how he came to 
issue it: 

*Linn, Story, pp. 603-604. 


312 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


I laid it before my brethren, such strong men as Brother 
George Q. Cannon, Brother Joseph F. Smith and the 
twelve apostles. I might as well undertake to turn an 
army with banners out of its course as to turn them out 
of a course they considered to be right. These men 
agreed with me, and 10,000 Latter-Day Saints also agreed 
with me. Why? Because they were moved upon by the 
Spirit of God and by the revelations of Jesus Christ to 
do it. 


At last they reached the ground of a divine reve- 
lation for an action which was forced out of them by 
the necessities of their situation. More than once 
during these critical days United States troops were 
held in readiness for possible action. 

At this time an event occurred that added fuel to 
the flames of public hostility to polygamy. The 
territorial legislature of Utah adopted a law which 
had the effect of nullifying the federal law against 
polygamy, but this action aroused such protest 
throughout the country that the Mormons saw their 
mistake and the Governor vetoed the bill. 

The proclamation of the manifesto was followed 
in December of the next year with a petition for 
amnesty presented to the President of the United 
States and signed by the First Presidency and Apos- 
tles of the Mormon Church. It declared that polyg- 
amy had been taught and practiced by the authori- 
ties and members of the church but that under the 
pressure of the law “the present head of the church 
in anguish and prayer cried out to God for help for 
his flock, and received permission to advise the mem- 


THE SURRENDER OF POLYGAMY 313 


bers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day 
Saints that the law commanding polygamy was 
henceforth suspended,” and ended with respectfully 
praying “that full amnesty may be extended to all 
who may be under disabilities because of the so- 
called Edmunds-Tucker law.” 

President Benjamin Harrison responded with a 
proclamation of amnesty which concluded as fol- 
lows: 


Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of 
the United States, by virtue of the powers vested in me, 
do hereby declare and grant a full amnesty and pardon 
for all persons liable to the penalties of said act, by 
reason of unlawful cohabitation under color of polyga- 
mous marriage, who have, since November Ist, 1890, 
abstained from such unlawful cohabitation, but upon ex- 
press condition that they shall in the future faithfully 
obey the laws of the United States hereinbefore named 
and not otherwise. Those who shall fail to avail them- 
selves of the clemency hereby offered will be vigorously 
prosecuted. 


4. WAS THE MANIFESTO KEPT? 


The country breathed more freely after the adop- 
tion of the manifesto and the President’s amnesty, 
hoping, if not supposing, that the Mormons had been 
brought to book and would keep their promise. “The 
mutual surrender,” says Gibbs, “produced an era of 
good feeling between Gentiles and Mormons.” 

Many Mormon husbands did divorce or cease to 
live with their plural wives and this brought great 


314 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


distress upon these women. On this point Gibbs 
writes: 


It was on those plural homes that the shadow of the 
manifesto fell with crushing force. Those women had 
laid the best of their lives and all they possessed on the 
altar of polygamy. By the edict of the manifesto, hun- 
dreds of modern Hagars were driven forth into the wil- 
derness of a new and strange existence. In some cases 
the first wife voluntarily secured a divorce from her 
husband, so that the plural wife might become the legal 
wife, and that, too, from the loftiest motives. 


So sore and pitiful were these cases that in many 
instances “‘the Gentiles permitted, without protest, 
the return of prodigal husbands. Under all the 
circumstances, they regarded it as the lesser of the 
evils.” 

It was not long, however, until it began to appear 
that there had been no real change of heart on the 
part of the Mormon leaders and that their offensive 
teachings and practices had not stopped. Evidence 
of this based on Mormon authorities is conclusive. 
It is to be remembered that the Mormon authorities 
did not in the manifesto and do not now deny the 
doctrine of polygamy. Referring to this doctrine, 
Joseph F. Smith, one of the Twelve Apostles who 
signed the amnesty petition, declared on June 12, 
as published in The Deseret News of June 23, 1903, 
that “The Latter-Day Saint who denies and rejects 
that truth in his heart, might well reject every other 
truth connected with his mission’; and in 1904 he 


THE SURRENDER OF POLYGAMY 315 


declared at Washington, “I believe in that principle 
today as much as ever I believed in it.” 

But did they practice it after the manifesto? The 
evidence on this point is equally clear. J. F. Gibbs, 
having come out from Mormonism and writing with | 
inside knowledge of the facts, devotes Chapter 
XXXI of his Lights and Shadows of Mormonism 
largely to this question and gives abundant proof 
from official sources that the Mormon leaders did 
not keep the manifesto. He gives the following 
extract from “An Address. The Church of Jesus 
Christ of Latter-Day Saints to the World,” 1907, 
as proof that President Joseph F. Smith and his 
councilors and apostles had definite knowledge of 
post-manifesto plural marriages: 


When all the circumstances are weighed, the wonder is, 
not that there have been sporadic cases of plural marriage, 
but that such cases have been so few. It should be 
remembered that a religious conviction existed among 
the people, holding this order of marriage to be divinely 
sanctioned. Little wonder then that there should appear, 
in a community as large as ours, and as sincere, a few 
over-zealous individuals who refused to submit to the 
action of the church in such a matter, or that these few 
should find others who sympathized with their views; 
the number, however, is small. 


This explicit admission that there were violations 
of the law, however ‘“‘few,” establishes the fact, and 
the “number” can be better determined otherwise 
than by this official Mormon statement. The am- 
nesty proclamation carried with it the fact that 


316 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


polygamous cohabitation was to cease, but Gibbs de- 
clares that ‘“‘by the time the amnesty proclamation 
of January 4th, 1808, was issued, nearly every polyg- 
amous Saint had resumed his former relations with 
his plural wives,” and that “notwithstanding Presi- 
dent Harrison’s pardon was based on the discontinu- 
ance of unlawful cohabitation, the registry files 
throughout Utah, and the large increase in the num- 
ber of votes cast at the next election, prove beyond 
controversy that polygamous Saints registered_and 
voted.” Gibbs then gives specific proof that Apos- 
tles John W. Taylor and Abraham H. Cannon mar- 
ried plural wives after the amnesty proclamation. 
The same guilt was admitted on the stand at Wash- 
ington before the Senate Committee on Privileges 
and Elections in the case of the retention of Apostle 
Reed Smoot in the Senate.’ 

Ex-Senator Frank J. Cannon is another witness 
to the violation of the federal law, and especially of 
the amnesty, who writes with inside knowledge, and 
the following extract will suffice: 


The first oracular disclosure made by the Prophets, 
on the witness stand (at Washington), came as a shock 
even unto Utah. They testified that they had resumed 
polygamous cohabitation to an extent unsuspected by 
either Gentiles or Mormons. President Joseph F. Smith 
admitted that he had had eleven children borne to him 
by his five wives, since pledging himself to obey the 
“revealed’ manifesto of 1890 forbidding polygamous 


°For official extracts from the testimony of Joseph F, Smith in 
this case see Gibbs, Lights and Shadows, pp. 289-293. 


THE SURRENDER OF POLYGAMY 317 


relations. Apostle Francis Marion Lyman, who was 
next in succession to the Presidency, made a similar ad- 
mission of guilt, though in a lesser degree. So did John 
Henry Smith and Charles W. Penrose, apostles. So 
did Brigham H. Roberts and George Reynolds, Presi- 
dents of Seventies. So did a score of others among the 
lesser authorities. And they confessed that they were 
living in polygamy in violation of their pledges to the 
nation and the terms of their amnesty, against the law 
and the constitution of the state, and contrary to the 
“revelation of God” by which the doctrine of polygamy 
had been withdrawn from practice in the church! Presi- 
dent Joseph I. Smith admitted he was violating the law 
of the state. He was asked: “Is there not a revelation 
that you shall abide by the law of the state and of the 
land?” He answered, “Yes, sir.’ He was asked: “‘And 
if that is a revelation, are you not violating the laws of 
God?” He answered: “I have admitted that, Mr. Sen- 
ator, a great many times.” 1° 


Other indubitable instances of violation of the 
law after the amnesty are given by Cannon and 
Gibbs, and Linn, whose work on The Story of Mor- 
monism was published in 1901, says, ‘““The most in- 
telligent non-Mormon testimony obtainable in the 
territory must be discarded if we are to believe that 
polygamous relations have not been continued in 
many instances.” On June I1, 1906, a majority 
of the committee made a report to the Senate rec- 
ommending that Apostle Smoot was not entitled to 
his seat in that body on the ground that he was one 
of a “‘self-perpetuating body of fifteen men, uniting 
in themselves authority in both church and state,” 


* Under the Prophet in Utah, by Frank J. Cannon and Harvey J. 
‘O’Higgins, pp. 268-269. 


318 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


who “so exercise this authority as to encourage 
among their followers a belief in polygamy as a 
divine institution, and by both precept and example 
encourage among their followers the practice of 
polygamy and polygamous cohabitation.” 

The evidence is conclusive that both the teaching 
and the practice of polygamy were continued among 
the Mormon leaders and people on a considerable 
scale after the manifesto and the amnesty. Prose- 
cutions were negligible and came to nothing because 
of Mormon influence. Brigham H. Roberts was 
tried in the district court in Salt Lake City in April, 
1900, on the charge of unlawful cohabitation, but 
the jury disagreed. It is hard to resist the conclu- 
sion, boldly asserted by both Gibbs and Cannon, that 
the Mormon authorities in their manifesto perpe- 
trated a fraud upon the American people. Perhaps 
a simple-minded Mormon woman let the secret out 
when she said that the manifesto was “just to fool 
the Gentiles.” Perhaps also they were playing for 
bigger game. 


(CLAP TAR ON 
THE FIGHT FOR STATEHOOD 


HIS bigger game was statehood for Utah. 
Mormonism is a political as well as a religious 
system. As it was a reversion from monogamy to 
polygamy, so was it from democracy to autocracy, 
and this made the system doubly atavistic and an- 
achronistic, degenerate and dangerous. 


I. EARLY DREAMS OF EMPIRE 


We have already seen how the founders of Mor- 
monism were heading towards political supremacy 
and even of world empire from the beginning. 
Wherever they settled they quickly came into colli- 
sion with the constituted authorities. At Nauvoo 
they endeavored to set up a state within the state, 
with its own laws and officials and military estab- 
lishment. It had its Nauvoo Legion uniformed and 
armed and Joseph Smith was its general-in-chief 
blazing in gold-laced uniform and white-plumed 
cockade in which he seemed to pose and look the 
part of Napoleon. His candidacy for the Presi- 
dency of the United States was no jest with him 


and his followers, however ridiculous it seemed to 
319 


820 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


the country. Brigham Young was off in New Eng- 
land electioneering for him when the comedy at 
Nauvoo turned to tragedy, and he hurried back to 
seize the presidency of the church and catch up and 
carry on the same torch of empire. He followed this 
star across the western plains into a valley, shut in 
with mountains, which he supposed was outside the 
jurisdiction of the United States, where he could 
set up his empire behind walls that would protect 
him and his followers from interference and from 
which they could in the coming day of their strength 
issue forth to rule the world. On entering the 
valley he said, “Now if the Gentiles will let us alone 
for ten years, I’ll ask no odds of them.” MHardly 
had the Mormons arrived when a treaty with Mex- 
ico settled the jurisdiction of the United States over 
the region, and when they saw the Stars and Stripes 
fluttering from a neighboring hill top, one of them 
exclaimed, “There’s that damned flag again.” 

Nevertheless they set up their “State of Deseret” 
with its legislature and governor and judges and 
with its Nauvoo Legion, and began to exercise all 
the powers of an empire. Brigham Young was 
verily an emperor for many a day. 

He matched his wits against the might of the United 
States government, and did not come off second-best. 
He yielded in outward seeming to federal power; but in 
reality he was emperor of his little realm to the hour of 
his death, and his subjects never doubted his supremacy. 


He drove federal appointees in disgrace from his king- 
dom, and took their positions for himself and his favor- 


THE FIGHT FOR STATEHOOD 321 


ites. No matter how overwhelming the power with 
which he was dealing, Brigham Young never was a 
suppliant. He stormed, bullied, lied, intrigued, finessed, 
cajoled; he never pleaded for mercy nor owned himself 
in need of mercy. 


It took years for the American people to realize 
what was going on in the Salt Lake Valley, how 
sincere and serious were the purposes and growing 
power of the Mormons and how destructive and 
deadly to American institutions they were. When 
other national issues were cleared out of the way 
they turned their attention to the Mormon empire 
and at the point of the sword brought it to its knees. 


2. STEPS TO STATEHOOD 


For years the Mormons had been planning and 
working for statehood. They felt they were fatally 
handicapped and crippled in political power by the 
fact that Utah was only a federal territory with no 
representative in the United States Senate and with 
only a delegate without vote in the House of Repre- 
sentatives. They were thus without power in the 
national Capital and with only the shadow of power 
in their own territorial capital. Even when their 
legislature did venture to adopt an act that virtually 
annulled the enforcement of the federal law against 
polygamy their Governor was constrained by public 
opinion to veto it. 


_ *Cannon and Knapp, Brigham Young and His Mormon Empire, 
p. Io. 


322 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


The manifesto and the amnesty were moves in 
the game for statehood. Of course there were other 
motives and a degree of sincerity in these moves, 
for mixed motives are involved in all human action. 
But the Mormons saw that they must yield to the 
increasing pressure of public opinion and of federal 
legislation against their system, or they could never 
reach statehood or escape more stringent federal 
legislation and even military enforcement. Hence 
the manifesto was adopted and the petition for am- 
nesty was presented, and, this being granted, the 
stage seemed to be cleared for statehood, when the 
Mormons would have in their hands an instrument 
of power which they had long dreamed of but never 
attained. 

Up to 1890, the year of the manifesto, they had 
no fewer than seven times adopted a state consti- 
tution; but though the one adopted in 1887 had pro- 
vided that “bigamy and polygamy, being considered 
incompatible with ‘a republican form of govern- 
ment,’ each of them is hereby forbidden and de- 
clared a misdemeanor,’ yet the non-Mormons 
attacked the declaration as insincere and Congress 
refused admission. 

Until the time of the manifesto, also, only two 
political parties existed in Utah, the People’s, the 
Mormon party, and the Liberal, or anti-Mormon. 
The Mormons saw that this party division based 
on their peculiar system cut them off from the gen- 
eral political life of the country and they took steps 


THE FIGHT FOR STATEHOOD 323 


to end this division. On June 10, 1891, the People’s 
Territorial Central Committee adopted a resolution 
dissolving the party and calling for a new formation 
of party lines.” The Republican Territorial Com- 
mittee a few days later “voted that a division of the 
people on national party lines would result only in 
statehood controlled by the Mormon democracy.” 
The Democratic Party Committee took the opposite 
view, and at the territorial election in August the 
Democratic party cast 14,116 votes, the Liberal, 
7,380, and the Republican, 6,613. The old party 
lines were thus broken up, the Liberal or anti-Mor- 
mon party quickly disappeared, and the national 
Democratic and Republican parties took the field. 
Events now moved rapidly to statehood. The 
country had faith in the manifesto and the amnesty, 
and opposition to granting statehood to Utah largely 
ceased. At the first session of the Fifty-third Con- 
gress, J. L. Rawlings, a Democratic territorial dele- 
gate from Utah, introduced an act enabling the 
people of the territory to enter the Union as a state, 
and this passed the House and the Senate, and on 
July 10, 1894, was signed by the President, and 
the deed was done; and while statehood fell immeas- 
urably short of the dream of empire which the Mor- 
mons had long entertained, yet it placed them in a 
much better political position than they had hith- 


erto enjoyed. 


* The inside history of politics in Utah from 1888 onward, with 
all the Mormon intrigues and plots and plans, is given in detail in 
Cannon and O’Neil’s Under the Prophet in Utah. 


324 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


A constitutional convention was held in Salt Lake 
City from March 4 to May 8, 1895, consisting of 
107 delegates, of whom 59 were Republicans and 48 
were Democrats. The constitution framed by this 
convention contains the following provisions: 


Article I, Section 4. The rights of conscience shall 
never be infringed. The state shall make no law respect- 
ing an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free 
exercise thereof; no religious test shall be required as a 
qualification for any office of public trust, or for any 
vote at any election; nor shall any person be incompetent 
as a witness or juror on account of religious belief or the 
absence thereof. There shall be no union of church and 
state, nor shall any church dominate the state or inter- 
fere with its functions. No public money or property 
shall be appropriated for or applied to any religious 
worship, exercise, or instruction, or for the support of 
any ecclesiastical establishment. 

Article III. The following ordinance shall be irrev- 
ocable without the consent of the United States and the 
people of this state: Perfect toleration of religious senti- 
ment is guaranteed. No inhabitant of this state shall 
ever be molested in person or property on account of his 
or her mode of religious worship; but polygamy or 
plural marriages are forever prohibited. 


This constitution was adopted by the people of 
Utah on November 5, 1895, by a vote of 31,305 to 
7,687, and President Cleveland issued a proclama- 
tion on January 4, 1896, admitting Utah as a state 
into the Union. 


3. UTAH AS A STATE 


Heber M. Wells, son of General Wells of the 
Nauvoo Legion, was the first Governor of the state 


THE FIGHT FOR STATEHOOD 825 


and in his inaugural took occasion ‘‘to resent the 
absurd attacks that are made from time to time 
upon our sincerity by ignorant and prejudiced per- 
sons outside of Utah.’ These persons, however, 
were not altogether “ignorant and prejudiced” and 
“the absurd attacks” were not without foundation. 
We have already seen that plural marriages were 
both sanctioned and practiced by Mormon apostles 
after the manifesto and amnesty and also at a date 
after the admission of Utah as a state, and further 
evidence of this will now appear. 

It turned out that both the Democratic and the 
Republican parties in Utah were more or less under 
Mormon control. On September 7, 1904, a gather- 
ing of protesting non-Mormons was held in Salt 
Lake City, at which a committee consisting of five 
Republicans and five Democrats was appointed to 
outline a policy by which the members of these par- 
ties and others opposed to the Mormon domination 
could free themselves from it and carry out a differ- 
ent policy. This committee issued a proclamation 
that opened with the following preamble: 


Whereas, an experience of fourteen years since the first 
material sign of the abatement of troubled conditions 
here was seen in the promulgation of the Woodruff mani- 
festo, has shown that the promises made were crafty 
and insincere, that the sought-for division of the people 
on party lines was not carried out in good faith; that 
both party organizations have been dominated and used 
for the double purpose of maintaining an ecclesiastical 
control which had no regard for either, and of preventing 


326 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


remonstrance or opposition by those who favor the free 
exercise of individual judgment and preference in po- 
litical affairs; and, 

Whereas, repeated experiences, emphasized by events 
just past, have fully proved that this ecclesiastical domi- 
nance is all-powerful and persistent, and that it cannot 
be shaken off so long as those who oppose it are divided 
into hostile camps, but on the contrary since by such 
division of the friends and supporters of American insti- 
tutions, their voices are stifled, and the hands are strength- 
ened of the crafty manipulators of church power and 
its application to political affairs ; therefore be it resolved.* 


Six resolutions followed and were adopted, de- 
claring that the committee would no longer play 
into the hands of the church and would repel with 
every means the intrusion of ecclesiasticism into pol- 
itics, and demanding complete freedom in political 
affairs, and closed, “Appealing to all fair-minded 
citizens of Utah to sustain us in this our righteous 
purpose.” 

This resulted in the organization, at a mass meet- 
ing’ on September 14, 1904, of the “American party” 
which elected its candidate, Ezra Thompson, as 
Mayor of the city. The American party continued 
for a time as a local party, but it made no headway 
outside of Salt Lake City and after several years it 
finally disappeared and the Republican and Demo- 
cratic parties survive as integral parts of the na- 
tional parties, the Republicans generally controlling 
the state. 


*The resolutions are given in full by Gibbs, Lights and Shadows, 
Pp. 522-523. 


THE FIGHT FOR STATEHOOD 327 


The admission of Utah into the Union as a state 
raised the question of the kind of representatives 
it would send to the national Senate and Congress 
and the country watched this point with jealous 
interest. One of the first Senators elected was 
Frank J. Cannon, whose presence in the Senate 
encountered no criticism, for though he was a nom- 
inal member of the Mormon Church yet he never 
was a polygamist himself and had boldly advocated 
a strict adherence to the terms of the manifesto and 
amnesty and opposed polygamous practices in the 
church. But in 1898 Brigham H. Roberts, a polyg- 
amist who had three wives, was elected to Congress, 
and this act aroused the country. After a hearing, 
his seat in the House was declared vacant by a vote 
of 268 to 50. He was the first and the last polyg- 
amist that was ever sent from Utah to Washington. 

In 1903 Reed Smoot was elected to the Senate, 
and this event precipitated another controversy. He 
was not a polygamist, but he was one of the Twelve 
Apostles who along with the three members of the 
First Presidency are the fifteen men that are the 
ruling hierarchy of the church. Strong opposition 
arose to his being seated in the Senate. The case 
was taken up by the Senate Committee on Privileges 
and Elections and hearings were held. A “protest’’ 
against seating Smoot was presented signed by 
eighteen prominent citizens of Salt Lake City, the 
first name on it being that of Rev. Dr. W. M. Paden, 


328 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of the city. 
The protest read in part: 


We protest as above upon the ground and for the 
reason that he is one of a self-perpetuating body of fifteen 
men, who, constituting the ruling authorities of the 
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or ‘“Mor- 
mon” Church, claim and by their followers are accorded 
the right to claim, supreme authority, divinely sanctioned, 
to shape the belief and control the conduct of those under 
them in all matters whatsoever, civil and religious, tem- 
poral and spiritual, and who thus, uniting in themselves 
authority in church and state, do so exercise the same 
as to inculcate a belief in polygamy and polygamous co- 
habitation; who countenance and connive at violations 
of the laws of the state prohibiting the same regardless 
of pledges made for the purpose of obtaining statehood 
and of covenants made with the people of the United 
States, and who, by all the means in their power, protect 
and honor those who with themselves violate the laws 
of the land and are guilty of practices destructive of 
the family and the home. 


Petitions aggregating a million names protesting 
against Senator-elect Smoot were sent to the Sen- 
ate from almost every state east of the Missouri 
River. 

It was before this committee that President Jo- 
seph F. Smith appeared and admitted that he had 
been living in polygamy since the manifesto and 
amnesty, and other high Mormon officials made the 
same admission. Joseph F. Smith, the son of Hy- 
rum, the brother of the Prophet Joseph, became 
President of the church in 1901 at the death of 


THE FIGHT FOR STATEHOOD 329 


President Lorenzo Snow, who succeeded President 
Woodruff. 

The Committee on Privileges and Elections re- 
ported to the Senate a resolution calling for the 
expulsion of Senator Smoot and this gave rise to 
long debate. The position of the majority demand- 
ing expulsion was expressed by Senator Newlands, 
of Nevada, who declared, “I shall vote for the ex- 
clusion of Mr. Smoot, not because of any personal 
unfitness for the position which he holds, but be- 
cause he is a high priest in a religious organization 
which believes in the union of church and state and 
which seeks to control the action of the state in 
temporal matters.” 

~On the other hand, Senator Hopkins, of Illinois, 
probably represented the views of the minority of 
the committee favoring the retention of Mr. Smoot 
when he declared, ““Reed Smoot is an apostle of this 
higher and better Mormonism. He stands for the 
sacred things of the church against polygamy and 
all the kindred vices connected with the loathsome 
practice. In his position as a member of the church, 
and as an apostle and preacher of the doctrines of 
the church, he had done more to stamp out this 
foul blot upon the civilization of Utah and the other 
territories where polygamy has been practised, than 
any other thousand men outside of the church.” 

On February 20, 1907, four years after his elec- 
tion, the Senate voted to reject the resolution ex- 
pelling Senator Smoot by 42 nays to 28 yeas, and 


330 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


Apostle Smoot remained in the United States Sen- 
ate, where he is now (1925) serving his fourth con- 
secutive term, which will expire March 4, 1927. 

Senator Smoot was and still is a straight-out 
Republican and he was seated principally by Re- 
publican votes. The charge was made at the time 
that he was seated largely on grounds of political 
expediency. Gibbs declares: “The fact is, and no 
one knows it better than those Senators who voted 
for Reed Smoot, that his retention was a matter of 
political expediency rather than for constitutional 
reasons. They knew that if Reed Smoot were ex- 
pelled, Utah, Idaho and Wyoming, all of them under 
the absolute control of the Mormon prophets, would 
be switched into the Democratic column, and that 
the Republican party would lose three members of 
the House, six members of the Senate, and nine 
electoral votes.”’ Cannon makes the same charge 
and declares that President Roosevelt at first op- 
posed the election of Apostle Smoot, “but this much 
is certain. President Roosevelt’s opposition to Apos- 
tle Smoot, for whatever reason, changed to favor.” ° 
Since the seating of Senator Smoot no other Sen- 
ator or Congressman from Utah has encountered 
opposition on the ground of connection with the 
Mormon Church, and this issue has largely dis- 
appeared from our national politics. 

Ex-Senator Frank J. Cannon, who because of his 


* Gibbs, Lights and Shadows, p. 518; Cannon, Under the Prophet 
in Utah, pp. 292-203. 


THE FIGHT FOR STATEHOOD 331 


continued outspoken opposition to and exposure of 
Mormon polygamy and politics was excommuni- 
cated from the Mormon Church in 1905, at the time 
of the writing of his second book in 1910, had not 
relaxed his charges against the Mormon hierarchy. 
In Under the Prophet in Utah, Chapter XVII is 
entitled “The New Polygamy,” in which he gives 
much evidence to show that the Mormons were en- 
couraging and practicing polygamy secretly, as “all 
checks were withdrawn when Smoot’s case was fa- 
vorably disposed of.” “Today,” he declares, “in 
spite of the difficulty of discovering plural mar- 
riages, because of the concealments by which they 
are protected, The Salt Lake Tribune is publishing 
a list of more than two hundred ‘new’ polygamists 
with the dates and circumstances of their marriages; 
and these are probably not one tenth of all the cases. 
During President Taft’s visit to Salt Lake City, in 
1909, Senator Thomas Kearns, one of the propri- 
etors of the Tribune, offered to prove to one of the 
President’s confidants hundreds of cases of new 
polygamy, if the President would designate two 
secret service men to investigate. I believe, from 
my own observation, that there are more polyg- 
amous wives among Mormons today than there were 
before 1890.” So stood the case in the judgment of 
this competent witness in IQIO. 


CHAPTER XXI 
MORMONISM TODAY 


ALT LAKE CITY stands today a city of 120,- 

000 people, beautiful for situation, rarely attrac- 
tive with its wide clean streets constantly flushed 
along each side with sparkling mountain water, 
splendid parks, fine residential districts, stately 
buildings, modern schools and universities, libraries 
and hospitals and churches, influential newspapers, 
prosperous business interests, and intelligent and 
cultivated people. A majority of its inhabitants are 
non-Mormons and it is pervaded by American 
ideals and spirit, and the casual visitor may at first 
see little that would lead him to suspect that it is any 
other than a typical western city. Yet it is the 
heart of Mormonism where are located its central 
institutions, and its hierarchy have their seats and 
exercise their authority and whence its life-blood 
goes out through all the arteries of its own terri- 
tory in Utah and in a lesser degree through the 
adjacent states and then is propagated out over the 


country and around the world. 
332 


MORMONISM TODAY 333 


I. MORMONISM GROWING AND AGGRESSIVE 


Mormonism today stands stronger and more ag- 
gressive than ever before. While it has lost some 
of its original fanaticism and fervor and cooled into 
a calmer state of mind, and while it has abated its 
greatest social offense and menace and has shed or is 
concealing some of its grosser features, yet it main- 
tains its growth and aggressiveness and is all the 
more effective in its methods. Starting in 1830 
with six members of unpromising antecedents and 
prospects, it now has half a million members and an 
organization dominating a region of something like 
200,000 square miles and an income of approxi- 
mately $4,000,000 a year. 

Dr. H. K. Carroll, an authority on religious sta- 
tistics, in his annual census of the churches for 1924, 
reported the Latter-Day Saints (two bodies) as 
having 10,157 ministers, 1,764 churches and 623,744 
members, with a gain of members for the year of 
15,929. In his report for 1925 he credits these two 
bodies with 625,160 members and a gain of only 
1,416. The Utah Latter-Day Saints are given 
4,241 ministers, 1,062 churches, 535,659 members 
and a gain for the year of 7,556, whereas the Re- 
organized Church is credited with 5,629 ministers, 
1,624 churches, 89,501 members and a decrease dur- 
ing the year of 287 ministers, 140 churches, and 
6,140 members. In round numbers, the Utah branch 
has 536,000 and the Reorganized branch has 


334 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


90,000 members. As the Mormons estimated their 
total number in 1900 at 300,000, they have doubled 
their membership in the last twenty-five years, which 
at least does not fall below the ratio of growth of 
most religious bodies, though their ratio of increase 
now appears to be falling considerably. In the last 
fifty years the non-Mormon population of Utah has 
increased threefold, but in the same period the Mor- 
mon increase has been twenty-five fold. Such rapid 
erowth is common in the initial stages of a new 
movement and in later stages it necessarily slows 
down. The Mormon increase in Utah has been 
checked by the outflow of their members to other 
states and countries, such as Mexico and Canada. 
The Mormons have lost by emigration, and the non- 
Mormons have gained by immigration. It has been 
estimated that 90 per cent of the members of all 
religious bodies in Utah are Mormons, 53 per cent 
in Idaho, 24 per cent in Nevada, 21 per cent in Wyo- 
ming, II per cent in Arizona, 1.6 per cent in Oregon, 
1.3 per cent in Colorado, and 1.1 per cent in 
Montana. 

The number of missionaries maintained within 
the United States at present is 1,092 and in foreign 
countries is 779, a total of 1,871, and these missions 
are carried on at an annual cost of $2,000,000 and 
the mission property is valued at $2,000,000. These 
figures indicate no lessening of zeal and efficiency 
in the propagation of Mormonism. The mission- 
aries are sent out on orders from the hierarchy and 


MORMONISM TODAY 335 


must forthwith go at their own expense, and this 
drastic decree, however it may be received with in- 
dignant denunciation, is yet obeyed with a sur- 
prising degree of acquiescence and few ever refuse 
to go out, even to the ends of the earth. Last year 
(1925) acall went out for 1,000 business men to go 
on missions at their own expense, and 1,700 re- 
sponded. What other church could: equal this 
record? These missionaries stay only several years 
and generally return with a favorable report of their 
work and converts, and then their good standing in 
the church is assured. 

The “Directory of the General Authorities and 
Officers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- 
Day Saints, Issued by the Church, June 1924,” isa 
complete handbook of information on the present 
organization, officers, boards, missions, stakes and 
branches of the church, from the “First Presidency” 
with Heber J. Grant, “President of the Church,” 
down through the “Council of the Twelve Apostles,” 
the “Presiding Patriarch,” the “First Seven Presi- 
dents of the Seventies,” the ‘Presiding Bishopric,” 
the seven “Missions” into which the country is di- 
vided, each being a center for missionary work, the 
twenty-five ‘Mission Presidents” stationed through- 
out the world, and the eighty-five “stakes,” each with 
its general officers, wards with their bishops, and 
branches. The total number of “wards” and 
“branches,” which are the same as ‘“‘churches” and 
“missions,” in the country is 1,015. 


336 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


The Mormons believe in education of their own 
kind and have a complete system of schools and 
theological seminaries, all heading up in their unt- 
versity. Among their “General Officers” are the 
“Church Board of Education’ with eleven members, 
the “Commissioners of Education” with three mem- 
bers, and their ‘Superintendent of Church Schools.” 
The “theological seminaries,” of about the rank of 
high schools, now number about fifty. The Presi- 
dent of “Brigham Young University” is Franklin 
S. Harris, who is an alumnus of his own university 
but also has a Ph. D. from Cornell University and 
is the author of several scholarly volumes, including 
The Principles of Astronomy and Sctentific Re- 
search and Human Welfare. 

The Mormons have not been sparing in their out- 
lay of money for buildings in Utah. Of the fifty- 
four ward chapels or meeting houses in Salt Lake 
City, the majority have been built or rebuilt during 
the last twenty-five years. About twenty-five of 
these have cost an average of $15,000 each. Scores 
of new meeting houses and tabernacles have been 
erected in outside towns and villages. In Salt Lake 
City a hospital costing $300,000, and an administra- 
tion building and offices costing $250,000 have been 
erected in the last twenty-five years. Besides these 
sums, over $400,000 has been spent in buildings for 
schools and colleges at Logan, Ogden, Salt Lake 
City, Provo, and Mesa in Arizona. Since 1897 the 
temple in Alberta, Canada, has cost $600,000, the 


MORMONISM TODAY 337 


temple in Hawaii $200,000, and $100,000 is now 
being spent on the temple in Mesa, Arizona. 

At the opening of the General Conference of the 
church held in the Tabernacle at Salt Lake City, 
April 4-6, 1925, President Heber J. Grant delivered 
an address giving a review of the work of the church 
throughout the world for 1924, from which we give 
the opening paragraphs together with some other ex- 
tracts.’ 


It is very gratifying, indeed, to see this immense con- 
gregation here this morning, bespeaking the interest of 
the Latter-Day Saints in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. It is customary at the opening session of our 
conference to give some statistics and to refer to the 
condition of the church at home and abroad. I am 
very pleased to be able to announce that the work of the 
Lord is growing all over the world: and that there is 
never a month or a year but what the church is stronger, 
spiritually and financially, than it was the month or the 
year previous. 

The following financial statement I am sure will be 
of interest to the people here assembled: 

From the tithes of the church there has been ex- 
pended for stake and ward purposes, $1,352,663.43. 

For education, the maintenance and operation of 
church schools, $727,808.93. 

For the construction, maintenance and operation of 
temples, $442,018.46. 

For the care of the worthy poor and other charitable 
purposes, including hospital treatment, $175,520.77. 

For the maintenance and operation of all the missions, 
and for the erection of places of worship and other build- 
ings in the missions, $700,664.09. 

*This address is published in full in The Deseret News of Salt 
Lake City in the issue of April 11, 1925. 


338 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


This makes a total of $3,398,785.68, taken from the 
tithes and maintenance and operation of the stakes and 
wards, for the maintenance and operation of church 
schools and temples, for charities, and for mission ac- 
tivities. 

In addition to charities paid out of the tithes as before 
named, there have also been disbursed the fast offerings 
and the Relief Society and other charities, amounting to 
$489,406.61, which amount, added to the $175,520.77 
paid from the tithes, makes a total of church charities, 


$664,927.38. 
Church Growth 


Children blessed and entered on the records of the 
Church in the stakes and missions, 19,955. 

Children baptized in the stakes and missions, 14,047. 

Converts baptized and entered on the records of the 
stakes and missions, 7,566. 

There are now 94 stakes of Zion, 907 wards, 70 inde- 
pendent branches connected with the stakes, 24 missions 
and 654 branches in the missions. 


Missionary Work 


Perhaps no one thing in connection with the church 
is as dear to the hearts of the Latter-Day Saints as our 
missionary labor. Counting the time, the salaries that 
might be earned by those who are in the mission field, 
and the expense of maintaining them there, the Latter-Day 
Saints are expending today something over $2,000,000 
a year for the spread of the gospel in the world. 


There follows a detailed statement giving the 
number of missionaries, the number of members, 
and the value of the church property in each of the 
nine missions on this continent, these being the Cali- 


MORMONISM TODAY 339 


fornia, Canadian, Central States, Eastern States, 
Mexican, Northern States, -Northeastern States, 
Southern States, and Western States. 


Total missionaries in the United States, 1,092; 
total membership, 64,189; total church property, 
$1,008,230.35. 


Foreign and Island Missions 


Each and all of the men presiding over these missions 
are giving the best in their power for the advancement 
of their missions. They are men of God, devoted to the 
welfare of their respective missions. And this can be 
said also of all the other missions, the statistics of which 
I shall now read, giving the name of the mission, the 
president, the missionaries, the membership and the 
church property. 


There follows a detailed statement of these mis- 
sions in Armenia, Great Britain, Denmark, France, 
Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, 
Switzerland, Germany, Australia, Hawaii, Japan, 
New Zealand, Samoa, Tahiti, and Tonga. 


Making a total of 220 missionaries, 26,780 members 
and $518,383.30 church property. 

The grand total of our missionaries is 1,871; of 
members in the missions, 117,340; the grand total of 
church property in these missions is $1,934,763.51, lack- 
ing but a very few dollars of $2,000,000 of money in- 
vested in church property in the missions throughout 
the world. 

Certainly when we consider the limited means of the 
people who embrace the gospel all over the world—for 
the gospel seems to reach the poor—we have great cause 


340 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


to rejoice in the financial showing in our missions, as 
well as the wonderful showing financially here at home. 


In membership, missions, converts, property, and 
zealous and efficient propaganda it stands proven 
that Mormonism today is growing and aggressive. 

Doctrinally Mormonism stands unchanged in any 
single syllable, with its three Smith Bibles, The Book 
of Mormon, The Doctrine and Covenants, and The 
Pearl of Great Price, unexpurgated and unrevised, 
and even the fraudulent and preposterous “Book of 
Abraham” remains in the latter of these books. The 
church still teaches the doctrine of polygamy as an 
inspired article of their faith, and the doctrine of 
many gods having fleshly bodies with sexual organs 
and appetites, Adam being the God they worship; 
and all these gods have many wives, so that their 
heaven is an eternal harem. The chief hope of 
the followers of this religion and the glory of their 
heaven is to become such gods themselves. Mor- 
monism still holds that it is the only true religion 
and in it is the only salvation; and the only hope of 
salvation for women is for them to be married or 
sealed to husbands. These gross features are con- 
cealed or even denied when it is thought to be the 
best policy to do so, but they stand written in their 
own “inspired” books, where they may be read of all 
men. Mormonism is still, in some features, an 
atavistic form of Mohammedanism and in others of 
gross paganism; yet in spite of these anachronistic 


MORMONISM TODAY 341 


aspects so repellent to our Christian civilization it 
eTows and is aggressive and is to be reckoned with 
more than ever. 

Mormonism continues to be a business and polit- 
ical as well as a religious organization. Zion’s Co- 
operative Mercantile Institution is still a flourishing 
and powerful business concern, and other great in- 
dustries under Mormon control are the Utah-Idaho 
Sugar Company and the Inland Crystal Salt Com- 
pany. The President of the church, Heber J. Grant, 
was recently elected a director of the Union Pacific 
Railroad to succeed the late William G. Rockefeller. 
These and other related business interests contrib- 
ute to the power and help to swell the receipts of the 
church. The presence and domination of the church 
in business, however, are not without criticism and 
unfavorable reaction within the church itself. 
Young Mormon business men have voiced their ob- 
jections against the extensive activities of the church 
in the business world, a form of competition which 
they feel is unfair to the independent merchant and 
which many assert is holding back outside capital 
from entering the Mormon domain. 

Politically the Mormons are in the ascendancy in 
Utah and control most of the offices and are influ- 
ential in the neighboring states into which Mormon- 
ism has infiltrated. They comprise two-thirds of 
the population of Utah, but more than half of Salt 
Lake City is non-Mormon. The present Governor 
of Utah is a non-Mormon, but the two United States 


342 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


Senators and one representative in Congress, most 
of the state officials, the State Superintendent of 
Public Instruction, the President of the State Agri- 
cultural College, the President of the State Univer- 
sity, the Superintendent of Salt Lake City public 
schools, the Mayor of the city, half the city Board of 
Education, and all but one of the city commissioners 
are Mormons. 


2. HAS THE MORMON PRACTICE OF POLYGAMY CEASED? 


What is the present status of polygamy in Mor- 
mondom? More than in any other question in con- 
nection with this religion are the American people 
interested in this one. We have traced the history of 
this doctrine and practice down to 1910, at which 
time Ex-Senator Frank J. Cannon declared, “I be- 
lieve, from my own observation, that there are more 
polygamous wives among Mormons today than 
there were before 1890.” 

The situation is different today. The evidence 
points to the conclusion that the law against polyg- 
amy is reasonably well obeyed. Let it be remem- 
bered that no law is perfectly obeyed, and the Vol- 
stead act under the Eighteenth Amendment is a 
case in point. It has also always been felt that po- 
lygamous marriages contracted before the manifesto 
of 1890 should be dealt with leniently, if not openly 
tolerated, because of the cruel hardship the strict en- 
forcement of the law would inflict on many polyg- 


MORMONISM TODAY 343 


amous wives who had entered the relation in good 
faith. Many if not most of these relations were 
broken off after the manifesto, and no polygamous 
Senator -or Representative has ever been tolerated 
in Congress. Although President Woodruff, who 
issued the manifesto, and other leaders swore that 
it forbade not only new polygamous marriages but 
also polygamous living, yet some of these leaders 
lived in violation of this interpretation. Three of 
them, Lorenzo Snow, Joseph F. Smith, and Heber 
J. Grant, became Presidents of the Mormon Church. 

Yet the increasing pressure of public opinion 
among both non-Mormons and the Mormons them- 
selves, the stricter enforcement of the law, and the 
changing views on the subject of the rising genera- 
tion, have brought about the practical abandonment 
of the practice of the doctrine. At the General Con- 
ference of the church in 1921 President Grant de- 
clared: “There is no man on earth that has power to 
perform plural marriage. A so-called plural mar- 
riage ceremony if performed is not marriage at all: 
it is adultery before God and the laws of the land. 
Any person who attempts to teach any other system 
than the prevailing system of one wife to one man is 
sanctioning the practice of adultery.” This is ex- 
plicit enough to satisfy the most exacting. 

While no doubt there are lingering survivals and 
irregularities and occasional violations under the 
law, yet the Mormon authorities and people must 
be given credit for having thoroughly repudiated 


844 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


and almost completely stamped out the practice of 
polygamy. This “twin relic of barbarism’ has 
at last gone in this country, along with slavery and 
the saloon, into the limbo of forbidden things, and 
any remaining practice of it is to be classed along 
with “bootlegging.” 

Yet this repudiation does not apply to the doctrine 
itself which is still held and even proclaimed by the 
Mormon authorities and taught in their inspired 
“revelation” as firmly as ever. The author heard 
Apostle James E. Talmage, one of the ablest and 
most scholarly of their leaders and the official theo- 
logian of the church, declare in a public address that 
the Mormons would ever hold to polygamy as a di- 
vinely revealed and authorized social system and 
that they would never under any pressure or perse- 
cution give it up. The doctrine is only lying dor- 
mant for the present, and in this state it is like so 
much dynamite in their system and is fraught with 
danger for the future. 


3. THE TESTIMONY OF RESIDENT PROTESTANT MINISTERS 


The history of Mormonism is open to any one 
who will take the time to read its literature, but 
those who live on its ground in intimate touch with 
its institutions and people and life can best estimate 
and evaluate its present state and future prospects. 
The author has obtained the views of several Prot- 
estant ministers who have long lived in Utah and 


MORMONISM TODAY 345 


studied Mormonism and are intimately acquainted 
with it. 

We first present extracts from a paper written 
by the Rt. Reverend Franklin S. Spalding, who 
was Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Utah from 1904 
to his death in 1914. He was a close and impartial 
student of Mormonism and wrote the destructive 
examination of “The Book of Abraham” which we 
have already quoted. The following extracts are 
from a paper read by the Bishop before the Home 
Missions Council in Salt Lake City in February, 
1914. He quotes a statement that had been recently 
made in the East as a means of anti-Mormon propa- 
ganda that characterized it as follows: “Open de- 
fiance of law, the teaching of treason, the multiply- 
ing of polygamous marriages, the most aggressive 
proselyting now progressing in the world—these 
compel attention to the Mormon church and organ- 
ized action against it.’ Bishop Spalding then 
proceeds: 

A careful man, cognizant of the facts, would have to 
qualify every one of those statements. The people in 
Utah are law-abiding, the charge of treason depends on 
a part of the temple ritual which may be as much a dead 
letter as parts of the Anglican Liturgy. The old Temple 
oath to revenge the death of the prophet is undoubtedly 
repeated by the majority of Mormons with a mental 
reservation. Not only are polygamous marriages not 
multiplying, but polygamy was never practiced by the 
Mormons to the extent popularly supposed, and if the 


churches are even half awake, they have nothing to fear 
from the proselyting efforts of 2,000 Mormons scattered 


346 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


over the earth, most of whom are school boys, who only 
know a few little speeches and a few Bible texts and who 
look at the call to a mission quite as much as a chance to 
see the world as to convert it. The point I want to insist 
on most strongly is that we must be on our guard lest 
we yield to the temptation actually to regret that the 
Mormons are improving—to be almost sorry that we have 
lost our old thunder because we can no longer honestly re- 
peat the stories of the sensationalists who are not held back 
by either truth or charity. It is high time that the same 
hopeful attitude was taken with reference to Mormonism 
as has been taken in regard to other religions which we 
as Christians consider inadequate. The thoughtful stu- 
dent of the great ethnic religions today tries to find 
points of contact and glimmerings of truth. The days 
in which interest in foreign missions was aroused by 
dreadful tales of brutality, lust and ignorance have hap- 
pily passed away, and the spiritual and ethical value in 
even the religions of the backward races is being recog- 
nized. The attitude toward the Mormon seems to be the 
sole exception to this more philosophical method of ap- 
proach. We will surely be wiser and more Christian if 
we think that because the Latter-Day Saints have so much 
truth they deserve more truth than to persuade ourselves 
that they have wilfully rejected all truth and are steeped 
in lust and crime and are therefore utterly bad.? 


We next give some extracts from an article on 
the “Mind of Mormonism,” by Rev. Claton S. Rice, 
published in The Pactfic Christian Advocate, of Oc- 
tober 10, 1923. Mr. Rice began work years ago as 
a Presbyterian home missionary in “darkest Utah,” 
and is now Assistant Superintendent of the Idaho 
Congregational Conference. 


_ * This paper is published in The Pacific Christian Advocate in the 
assue of May 7, 1924. 


MORMONISM TODAY 347 


The majority of educated young Mormons are remain- 
ing in the church. In spite of university advantages, 
in spite of travel, in the face of intimate association with 
cultured Christian Gentiles, the average educated young 
Mormon is still, outwardly at least, a Mormon... . 

As we come into contact with these men, we find, as 
we might very well expect, several different types of mind. 
We shall attempt to discuss four of these. 

1. We find many young Mormons who are not greatly 
interested in the truthfulness, or lack of it, of the Mormon 
claims. They are not vitally concerned with religion in 
any form. Brought up in the Mormon church, their 
parents loyal, their whole connection proud of the church’s 
accomplishments and proud as well because of what they 
have endured for the sake of the church, they accept the 
church and her claims as a matter of fact. It is enough 
that they have been born into a Mormon family. The 
family’s religion is good enough for them. They them- 
selves are not much concerned with religion, but so far 
as they know or care to know, the religion of the family 
suits them perfectly. 

We Protestants enroll thousands of such people in our 
churches. 

2. There are those among our educated young Mor- 
mons whose experience is something like this: They have 
thought far enough to realize that thinking is destruc- 
tive of their faith. Fearful of the consequences of 
apostasy, they have succeeded in isolating their religion, 
placing it in a secret chamber of the brain, where they 
shield it studiously against the light of reason. 

They will be brilliant doctors or well-informed lawyers 
or thorough school-men. They may possess enough com- 
mon sense and scientific knowledge to completely destroy 
the crude, materialistic, insufficient theology of their 
fathers, but they never allow reason and religion to meet. 
Safely vaulted away, the faith of their fathers is lovingly 
brought forth on state occasions when there is no danger 
of reason and faith meeting. At such times brainy men 


348 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


are seen to bow reverently and are heard to exclaim fer- 
vently, “I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of 
God.” 

There are times, at least, when we can fully sympathize 
with the young Mormon in his almost heroic effort to hold 
fast, in spite of intellectual difficulties, to that which his 
fathers have found good. 

3. Sometimes we come in contact with educated Mor- 
mons who are wholly convinced that the claims of Mor- 
monism are largely fraudulent. Morally, they feel that 
they are cowards for remaining in the church. In spite 
of this fact, hating themselves greatly at times, they re- 
main in the church to the end of their days. 

It takes a man of high moral courage and of fixed 
resolution to face such consequences. ‘To renounce the 
Mormon church, to face parental sorrow and all that clan 
wrath means, to make one’s way alone among strangers— 
these things make men pause before they act. The young 
Mormon pays a heavy price when he acts. 

4. There are an increasing number of intelligent men in 
the church, I believe, who excuse their presence in the 
Mormon church on the grounds of Pragmatism. 

This situation is an anomalous one for a university 
man to find himself in. Yet we must not condemn him 
too severely. I have heard Pragmatism used as the 
argument for remaining true to other discredited systems, 
used by men whose educational advantages have been 
superior to that of the young Mormon. Our churches 
have used it. 

In conclusion let me add that the early Christianization 
of the educated young Mormon may be brought about if 
we are willing to pay the price. When the thinking young 
Mormon can find a moral courage, an intellectual honesty, 
a whole-hearted consecration to the Christian religion 
among his Gentile associates which is so strong that he 
is forced to compare its fiery brilliancy with the dullness 
of his own, then he will be inspired to break his bonds, 
that he may receive that which produces such admirable 


MORMONISM TODAY 349 


things in others. He is religious by nature, and he will 
pay the price if it seems worth while. 

Ultimately Truth must win. A long, slow process of 
attrition, taking scores of years, may grind away the 
theological crudities of the Mormon church, while an 
equally long process of assimilation may bring to her the 
real Christianity of the Christ. But, oh—the weary years 
wasted in the process, and oh, the long-suffering people, 
wandering in darkness! 

A bright, burning, fearless Christianity in the Christian 
churches of the land from Utah east and west, will con- 
vert the young Mormon in a few years. The slower 
process may take centuries. O, Christian, West and 
East, how are you living? 


We next present the views of Rev. Dr. Edward 
L. Mills, who from 1911 to 1914 was superintendent 
of the Methodist Episcopal Utah Mission and from 
1914 to 1920 was superintendent of frontier work of 
the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension 
of his church, and since 1920 has been editor of The 
Pacific Christian Advocate published at Portland, 
Ore. Few men are more competent and fairer in 
judging Mormonism than Dr. Mills, and he has 
sent us his views of it as follows: 


Is there a “Menace” in Mormonism? ‘There are three 
answers to this question? 

First, that of the people who are fighting Mormonism 
for a living. They claim to see a great menace and pre- 
sent the matter to public congregations all over the country 
in a way calculated to horrify the latter and to increase 
contributions to the cause they represent. Exaggeration 
is distinctly in their interest. Their ostensible objective, 
a federal law against polygamy, is praiseworthy but is 


350 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


not nearly so important to secure as a uniform divorce 
law. 

Second, there is the answer of the average non-Mormon 
who lives in Utah and comes into business or professional 
contact with Mormons. He quite readily reaches the 
conclusion that Mormonism is simply one variety of 
Christianity and is about as good as any other, himself 
not caring much for any of them. The 300,000 tourists 
who casually visit Salt Lake City each year are probable 
subscribers to this opinion. 

Third, there is the answer of the Christian missionary 
in Utah and of such tourists and residents as have a real 
sense of spiritual values. To them the appalling deficien- 
cies of Mormonism as a vehicle of religion are evident and 
like Paul, they feel a holy compulsion to preach the Gospel 
they have experienced. They are not afraid of the 
Mormon “menace” any more than our missionaries to 
China are afraid of the yellow “peril.” ... The great 
increase in Mormonism is purely mythical. The increase 
really amounts to about 10,000 a year, which considering 
the efforts put forth by 1,500 full-time missionaries, is 
exceedingly small. Most of the converts moreover are 
ignorant and in social standing inferior to those made 
by Christian Science. Almost never does one hear of 
“Gentiles” in communities predominantly Mormon be- 
coming converted to Mormonism. To speak plainly, 
Mormonism is a second rate religion and whenever it 
meets on equal terms religions with a creditable past and 
a real program, it is helpless. Its persistence in Utah is 
due to the fact that there it does not meet other religions 
on terms of equality but under favorable conditions fixed 
by itself. Of course the 460,000 Mormons will exercise 
some influence upon the 4,000,000 other people in states 
contiguous or accessible to Utah. But the influence of 
the 4,000,000 upon the 460,000 is what worries the 
Mormon leaders. 

It is possible here only to hint at the very considerable 
number of Mormons who are now to be found in Chris- 


MORMONISM TODAY 351 


tian Churches, to mention the potent influence of evan- 
gelical missions in producing the present patriotic atti- 
tude of Utah; to point out how these same forces have 
acted as a pace maker for the dominant church in methods 
of work, the use of Christian hymns and increasing stress 
upon the Bible. As a single instance we may note that 
the Episcopal St. Marks Hospital was the first institu- 
tion of the sort in Utah. Today the Mormon Church has 
fine hospitals in Salt Lake and Ogden and is only at the 
beginning of activity in that line. There are plenty 
of results of Christian missions in Utah if one knows 
where to look for them. 

The young people of Utah read the same books and 
magazines and their minds are formed by the same in- 
fluences today as the young people in other States. In 
addition they have the special influences arising from 
a desperate effort on the part of the Mormon Church to 
put its teaching into their minds. But no one who knows 
anything about the situation, doubts that the Mormon 
Church is fighting a losing battle against modern knowl- 
edge in science and philosophy. 


Writing on ‘(Mormonism Today,” in The Chrts- 
tian Century of April 15, 1926, Dr. Mills says: 


A result of evangelical missions has been to speed up 
the shift of Mormon emphasis from distinctively Mor- 
mon doctrines to those which are more Christian in 
their content. This process is not yet finished. In a 
recent book of Mormon apologetics, thirteen hundred 
references are made to the Bible as against nine hundred 
to the Book of Mormon. The Bible is now a best seller 
among the Mormons. It is impossble to speak with exact- 
ness concerning this tendency. The more modernism gets 
into the system, the more vociferous become the funda- 
mentalists in behalf of the ancient landmarks. There is 
plenty of evidence, however, that the grip of the old doc- 


352 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


trines on the younger generation is lessening. This does 
not impair the force of family tradition nor destroy the 
power of social and economic solidarity. 


The Rev. William M. Paden, D.D., pastor of the 
First Presbyterian Church of Salt Lake City from 
1897 to 1912 and since then superintendent of Pres- 
byterian Home Missions in Utah, for twenty-eight 
years has been a resident of Salt Lake City and has 
traveled over the State of Utah and has intimate 
knowledge of Mormonism and personal acquain- 
tance with many of its officials, including President 
Grant and apostles and professors of Brigham 
Young University. He has contributed to this vol- 
ume the following statement of his view of the 
present situation: 


The Mormons are the largest, the best organized, the 
most agressive and, strategically, the best located in- 
digenous religious cult in the United States. The inter- 
mountain variety has more locally enrolled members than 
all the other religious bodies combined in Utah and cer- 
tain contiguous communities. 

The membership of the two Mormon sects—Brigham- 
ite and Josephite—is increasing at the rate of 20,000 to 
25,000 members each year, chiefly through birth rate, 
though the Utah Mormons have, for several years, been 
making larger accessions from their Gentile neighbors 
than in former days. Both sects have been increasingly 
aggressive since the great war. Their two thousand or 
more missionaries bring in some converts from non- 
Mormon communities, though, as has been suggested, the 
large majority of the additions are born in it and very 
many of them grow into the cult as their clan rather 
than as a specifically religious organization. They are 


MORMONISM TODAY 358 


bound together by consciousness of kind and hold to- 
gether by appeals to group interests and passion. 

The Utah cult owes much of its strength to the fact 
that its members are, as a rule, colonized and held together 
in communities, towns or states in which its adherents 
have an overwhelming majority and have valuable church 
property, or in which, as lesser or larger majorities, they 
can more than hold their own. 

Some of the Mormons are devoutly religious, but the 
zeal of the Mormon leaders is generally sectarian rather 
than Christian and their unction is dogmatic rather than 
spiritual. The vast majority of the rank and file pin their 
faith to the Mormon Church as an organization which 
assures them special privileges in the world to come and 
certain social, economic and political dividends in the 
world that now is. They are knit together and overso- 
cialized by isolation, discipline, intermarriage and en- 
forced co-operation, easy moral standards and a type of 
religion which is quite attractive to the ordinary natural 
man. 

The church is, at least outwardly, sloughing off some 
of its grosser features. We do not hear, as formerly, 
defense of Brigham’s declaration that Adam is the God 
of the human race or Spencer’s contention, still published 
under church auspices, that Mary and Martha were the 
wives of Jesus, or the claim, still made in the Mormon 
hymn book, that the Eternal Father has a wife or wives. 
And, of course, the world has been told that the laws 
concerning plural marriage as set forth by Joseph Smith 
are now held in abeyance by the manifesto of the late 
President Woodruff in which he advised the Latter Day 
Saints to refrain from marriages forbidden by the laws 
of the land; but the principle or doctrine of plural mar- 
riage is still endorsed and upheld by the Mormon leaders 
“as a high privilege conferred upon special conditions 
directly under commandment of God.” While the practice 
of polygamy has been discountenanced and certain crudi- 
ties of doctrine are being sloughed off, the Mormon leaders 


354 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


still hold to the assumptions on which their cult is founded 
with uncompromising tenacity. 

Many of the Mormons are better than Mormonism; 
many of the Mormon people have not taken oaths in the 
temple, and many Mormons care little for the peculiar 
tenets of Mormonism. ‘They are making less and less of 
testimony that Joseph Smith is a prophet, and have little 
use for the so-called “revelations” peculiar to Mormon- 
ism. The majority of the present-day Mormons never 
practiced polygamy, and many of them do not believe that 
the principle is holy and right, though they are not yet 
free to say so publicly. These Mormons do not expect 
to become gods and do not think of the world or worlds 
to come as under the control of an aggregation of: male 
and female deities. They are ridding themselves of 
theories, teachings and practices which are basic in Mor- 
monism. Our desire is to help such Mormons out of 
Mormonism and into fellowship with those whose inspira- 
tions for service and hope of eternal life are based on the 
redeeming passion of God in Christ through the Holy 
Spirit. 

The Rev. Dr. John D. Nutting was pastor of the 
First Congregational Church of Salt Lake City from 
1892 to 1898 and has since carried on the Utah 
Gospel Mission and has extensively traveled, writ- 
ten and lectured in connection with his mission work 
amongst the Mormons. His knowledge of the sub- 
ject is thorough and he has sent the author his view 
of the future of Mormonism as follows: 


The one power which is stronger than priestcraft and 
error combined is the truth of God according to the 
Bible, backed by the Spirit of God who always enforces 
the real Gospel message presented in clearness and love. 
We look for the outcome of the Mormon question, not in 


MORMONISM TODAY 355 


the destruction of the whole system by force so much as 
in its gradual inner change from perverted views, and the 
wrong practices bred by these, into the true teachings 
and the reborn hearts and right conduct which naturally 
follow them. And the only way to change ideas is by other 
ideas presented as attractively as possible in evident Chris- 
tian love. 


These views bear the marks of thorough personal 
knowledge, fair judgment and a sympathetic spirit, 
and it is evident that these writers are honestly and 
also successfully endeavoring to tell us “the truth 
about Mormonism.” 


4. CONCLUDING CONSIDERATIONS 


On the basis of these views and of the whole 
course of this study we may now draw some con- 
cluding considerations. 

A. Mormonism is an errant form of Christianity. 
Mormonism is a religion and a form of the Christian 
religion with some of the virtues of religion. It is 
a corrupt form, from the orthodox point of view, a 
degeneration or throwback to the early religion of 
the Old Testament and on back into paganism, yet 
it fulfills in some degree for its followers the object 
of religion in finding God. They do accept the 
Christian Bible and believe in and worship the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and so far they accept vital Christian 
truth. They are brought up in and inherit Mor- 
monism as their traditional faith and find it works 
in their experience. It stands the pragmatic test 


356 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


with them, and this is the main ground of the faith 
of most of the followers of all religions. Few are 
the members in our orthodox and most enlightened 
churches that have any scholarly and critical knowl- 
edge of the historic and theological foundations of 
their faith; they were brought up in their religion 
and it works and this satisfies them. This is true of 
all religions, even the darkest and most degraded, 
else they would not survive. 

Mormonism thus has a core and root of truth 
and is not to be eradicated root and branch but it 
is to be pruned and purged. Its followers, however 
ignorant and deluded many of them may be, are 
not wilful, much less wicked devotees of error and 
corruption, but are genuinely sincere believers in 
their religion. 

B. The “menace” of Mormonism ts abated. The 
menace of Mormonism, especially in the practice of 
polygamy, has practically passed away. The Mor- 
mon authorities set their solemn seal on the mani- 
festo and, after a period of hesitating delay, have 
endeavored to enforce it, and such instances of po- 
lygamous relations as now remain are the infrac- 
tions that attend most laws. This menace of Mor- 
monism having ceased, this line of attack upon it is 
now closed. This ammunition, so effective in popu- 
lar propaganda against the system, is now spent. 

In a considerable measure, also, other features of 
the menace of Mormonism have been abated. The 
alarmist facts and figures that have been the stock 


MORMONISM TODAY 357 


in trade of some opponents of the system have been 
exaggerated. Reports and assertions have gone out 
of ‘a million” and even “a million and a half” Mor- 
mons in this country with accounts of their phe- 
nomenal growth. But the million has shrunk to 
half as many, and the growth is not abnormal but 
well within the average ratio of increase of other 
religious bodies. In fact, when we consider the 
large number of missionaries the Mormons send out 
in comparison with their total membership, far in 
excess of the like relative numbers of other religious 
bodies, their growth is much slower than that of 
most of the orthodox churches. The fact, also, that 
Gentiles are pouring into their territory much faster 
than the Mormons are increasing is another limi- 
tation upon their relative growth and reduction of 
their relative power. 

Mormonism as a political and business menace 
has also largely lost its alarming features. What- 
ever methods these people may have pursued in for- 
mer days, it does not appear that they now use any 
other means and in any other degree than those 
which are common among the adherents of other 
churches. Any church is rather proud of the mem- 
bers it may have in Congress and is immensely 
flattered when one of its communion is elected Presi- 
dent and does not hesitate to make capital out of 
the fact. We should be fair towards the Mormons 
and not simply magnify their faults and be blind to 
their virtues. All of us have enough failures and 


358 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


faults to answer for, and let him that is without 
sin among us cast the first stone. 

C. Mormonism has inner checks and self-lumita- 
tions. It is burdened with its impossible Book whose 
historical absurdities and immoral doctrines will 
ever bar it from general acceptance among educated 
classes. Its doctrine of polygamy is still a millstone 
around its neck. While polygamy is in the Old Tes- 
tament, yet it is not commanded as a duty but is 
only tolerated as an existing social institution which 
could not be suddenly uprooted, an outgrown good 
or survival relic of the past which was not yet ready 
to be wholly put away, as it was in due time. But 
the offense and menace of the Mormon “revelation,” 
however, is that it does not simply permit but en- 
joins polygamy as a duty and even declares it is an 
eternal principle. 

The Mormon concept of God is also a pagan 
doctrine that cannot stand the light of our modern 
thought. In fact, Mormonism even today has not 
cast off the rags of its pagan doctrines, though it 
has put on the garments of Christian respectability 
in its practice. As a consequence it has appealed 
principally to the less educated and more easily de- 
luded class of people and has made small inroads 
upon the higher and more intelligent grades. It 
wins comparatively few converts from non-Mor- 
mons but grows mostly by birth from its own 
people. These checks and limitations reduce the 
peril of Mormonism. It tends to run its course 


MORMONISM TODAY 359 


and arrest itself. It can therefore never become a 
dominant cult in this or in- any other enlightened 
country. 

D. How to meet and deal with it? The chief 
problem that now confronts us is how to meet and 
deal with Mormonism. Enough has been shown 
and said to indicate the course to be followed. The 
attitude towards Mormonism should be that of 
friendly relationship. Persecution will not put it 
down. Persecution is often a powerful propagan- 
dist of the very faith it is trying to destroy. The 
blood of any martyr is likely to become the seed 
of his creed, whether it be truth or error. The 
assassination of Joseph Smith that cut short his 
life also extended the life of his church. Had “Joe” 
Smith been permitted to live out his natural days he 
would probably have so loaded down his boat with 
his multiplying ‘revelations’ and fanaticisms and 
follies as would have sunk it beneath the waves or 
run it on the rocks of public opinion. It was because 
Joseph Smith was removed before he had hopelessly 
wrecked his church that Brigham Young could save 
it. Killing Smith only converted multitudes to his 
cause, and persecuting his church will still add to 
its numbers and prolong its life. 

Ridicule and sarcasm will not laugh Mormonism 
out of the world or it would have gone long ago. 
These means only stiffen up the courage and the 
resolution of its adherents to be loyal to their tradi- 
tional faith and sacred associations. It welds'and 


360 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


tightens the band that binds the clan into a solid 
mass. Some of the objections that have been urged 
against it may be turned with equal application and 
destructiveness against other Christian sects. We 
must be careful that we do not hoist ourselves with 
our own petard. In destroying Mormon faith we 
may be pulling down the temple of all religious faith 
and making the last state of Mormons worse than 
the first. 

Our hope for the future of Mormonism is that the 
growing light of knowledge, science and education, 
Christian truth and grace, will slowly pervade and 
modify it. The method of Paul at Athens is still 
good for our day and for this problem. The spirit 
of modern thought that insensibly and irresistibly 
penetrates and pervades all religious creeds and cults 
cannot be excluded from and resisted by Mormon- 
ism. The Rocky Mountains can no longer wall it 
in with immunity any more than they shut out the 
winds from the Pacific Ocean. This work is now 
visibly and measurably going on. Modern knowl- 
edge, especially archeology and history, biology and 
psychology, is putting dynamite under the founda- 
tion of Mormonism, or rather is dissolving it as 
icebergs are melted when they float into warmer 
seas and a more genial sun. Mormons cannot shut 
modern books and magazines out of their homes and 
keep them out of the hands of their people and 
especially of the rising generation, and still more is 
it impossible for them to keep their minds immune 


MORMONISM TODAY 361 


against modern ideas. These germs float in the air 
and this cannot be breathed without imbibing them. 
They soak insensibly and unwittingly through the 
very pores of the skin and are absorbed and assimi- 
lated into the blood. Brigham Young was aware of 
this when he fled with his people to an immune 
region, but there are no more protected places and 
the Mormons can fly no further. 

Modern knowledge is now penetrating the 
schools and colleges and universities of Utah. In 
I9Q1r “modernism” disrupted the faculty of the 
Brigham Young University at Provo and three of 
its members were forced out. The disintegrating 
transforming effect of modern education is brought 
out in a psychological and ethical study of Mor- 
monism by Professor E. D. Ericksen, Professor of 
Philosophy in the University of Utah, the state in- 
stitution at Salt Lake City, in which he says: 


Among the most important of the conditions that tend 
to bring about readjustment is the rapid growth of col- 
leges and high schools in the state as well as the tendency 
for a large number of young people to seek education out- 
side the state. Between four and five thousand young 
people of Mormon parentage are attending college every 
year and many times that number are in high schools. 
They are thus coming in contact with the educational 
spirit and developing a great many new ideals and values. 
The many possibilities of the larger life, social and 
scientific, are being forced upon them. ‘These new inter- 

*The Life and Philosophy of W. H. Chamberlin, a professor who 
was forced out of the Brigham Young University in 1916 and sub- 


sequently recalled, throws much light upon the inner workings of 
Mormon educational management. 


362 THE TRUTH ABOUT MORMONISM 


ests are not regarded as antagonistic to the Mormon ideals, 
but little by little they detract attention from creed and 
abstract theology.? 


The day for alarmist cries and appeals is past. 
We must now settle down to slow, patient, char- 
itable, tactful methods and means of Christian 
teaching and influence. Already have these erring 
children come part way back home. They are now 
preaching and teaching a gospel that appears to be 
approximating more closely our common Christian- 
ity. Many of their sermons and prayers sound 
strikingly orthodox. They are even speaking of the 
Bible in terms that exalt it above their own bibles.* 
Dropping the Book of Mormon together with their 
other inspired books will be the hardest and one of 
the last things the followers of Joseph Smith will 
do. Perhaps in time they can gradually and quietly 
let it fall into innocuous desuetude or let it become 
encysted in their system very much as many ortho- 
dox Christians do with some portions of the Old 
Testament. If they will also quietly drop Joseph 
Smith as their prophet and cast off pagan additions 
to their doctrines they might in time become a rec- 
ognized form of Christianity and take their place in 
the circle of the Christian brotherhood. 


se Psychological and Ethical Aspects of Mormon Group Life, 


p. 98. 

*In The Deseret News, the official organ of the church, of June 7, 
1924, on the editorial page appears an article headed “Bible 
Thoughts” of which the closing sentence is the following: “The 
Bible is the grandest of all sacred records. It is the true foundation 
of all excellent writings and useful facts.” 


MORMONISM TODAY _ 363 


This hope may seem too good to come true, but 
there are even now some signs of it and God often 
works out our problems in ways that exceed our 
expectations and faith. The day will reveal it. 
In the meantime, let us give ourselves to our work 
in consecration and sacrifice at least equal to that 
which are so admirably displayed by the Mormons 
themselves. A bright and burning Christianity 
may yet kindle and purify their dull and degenerate 
faith. They also are the children of our common 
heavenly Father, and we should so regard them and 
welcome them back to their ancestral faith and fel- 
lowship. This, we believe, is the truth about 
Mormonism, 


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INDEX 


Advocate, The Pacific Christian, 
349-351. 

Anthon, Charles, 64-65, 76. 

Arthur, President Chester A., 
303. 

Atonement, Blood, Mormon doc- 
trine of, 122-123, 244-262. 


Bateman, William, 251. 

Bentley, Adamson, quoted, 88. 

Bible, The Golden, its origin, 
50-76; printing and editions 
of, 67-60. 

Bissing, Friedrich von, quoted, 


79. 

Boggs, Governor of Missouri, 
165. 

Agel Rev. Dr. A. J., quoted, 


Boudinot, Elias, 103. 

Brandeburg, Justice L. G., 234- 
235. 

Breasted, James H., quoted, 78. 

Brocchus, Justice P. E., 235, 236. 

Buchanan, President James, 237- 
242. 

Burr, Surveyor General, quoted, 
237. 


Calhoun, John C., 172. 

Campbell, Alexander, 112, quot- 
ed, 114, 146. 

Canon, Frank J., quoted, 121, 
123-124, 156-157, 278, 283-284, 
208-299, 316-317, 320-321, 323; 
Senator, 327, 330, 342. 

Cannon, George Q., quoted, 311- 
Bra. 

Carlin, Governor of Illinois, 168. 

Carlyle, Thomas, 66 

Carroll, H. K., his religious sta- 
tistics, 333. 


Century, The Christian, 351-352. 

Chase, Clara, wife of Brigham 
Young, 288. 

Chase, A. D., quoted, 90. 

Chase, Williard, quoted, 58. 

Chislett, John, quoted, 206-208. 

Christ, Mormon doctrine of, 
120-130. 

Church, of Latter-Day Saints, 
see Mormonism. 

Church, Reorganized, of Latter- 
Day Saints, 195-198, 276-277, 


323. 

City, Salt Lake, 221-231. 

Clark, John A., quoted, 43. 

Clark, Gen. John B., 165. 

Clay, Henry, 172. 

Cleveland, President 
205, 303, 324. 

Conner, Col. P. E., 265. 

Cooper, Fenimore, 102. 

Court, The Supreme, on polyg- 
amy, 301-302, 308. 

Cowdery, Oliver, one of the 
“witnesses,” 70-73, 117, 144, 
147, 153, 162, 190, 210. 

Cradelbaugh, Judge, quoted, 2409. 

Crockwell, J. M., 283. 

Cumming, Governor of Utah, 
238-242. 


Grover, 


Danites, organized, 163-164. 

Deseret, State of, 232, 267, 320. 

ihe Sarat among Mormons, 195- 
196. 

Doctrine and Covenants, quoted, 
117-118. 

Dodd, Cephas, quoted, 85-86. 

Douglass, Stephen A., 237. 

Drake, Judge, 267. 

agen John W., quoted, 107- 
108, 


365 


366 


Eaton, Mrs. Horace, 89. 
Edmunds, Senator, 303-306. 
“Egyptian,” Smith’s “Reformed,” 
77-79; ol. e A 
Encyclopaedia Britannica, quot- 
ed, 141-142. 
Ericksen, Professor E. D., 
quoted, 361-362. 
Evans, John H., Mormon church 
historian, quoted, 256-257. 
Evarts, W. M., Secretary of 
State, 219. 


Fillmore, President Millard, 233- 


234. 

Folsom, Amelia, wife of Brig- 
ham Young, 284-285. 

Ford, Governor of Illinois, 175. 


Garfield, President James A., 


303. 

Gerould, Katherine F., quoted, 
ps se 

Gibbs, J. F., quoted, 171, 180, 
187-188, 252, 258, 259-260, 262, 
265, 307, 313-314, 330. 
od, Mormon doctrine of, 


129. 

Godbe, W. S., 274-277. 

Grandin, E. B., 67-68. 

Grant, Heber J., President of 
the Church, 335, 337, 341, 344. 

Grant, Jediah M., quoted, 132- 
133; first mayor of Salt Lake 
City, 231; quoted, 238, 244- 
246, 296, 330-331. 

Gunnison, J. W., quoted, 144. 


127- 


Hale, Isaac, father of Joseph 
Smith’s wife, 45-46, 63-64. 
Harding, Governor Stephen S., 

266-267. 
Harris, Abigail, 59, 60. 
Harris, Secretary B. H., 235. 
Harris, Franklin S., 336. 
Harris, Martin, 62-63, 66-67, 68- 
69; one of the “witnesses,” 
70-73, 153. 
Harrison, President Benjamin, 


313. 
Harrison, E. L. T., 274-277. 


INDEX 


Hayes, President Rutherford B., 
302-303. 

Hayes, Mrs. Rutherford B., 302. 

Hendrix, Daniel, quoted, 61, 68. 

Higbee, Major John M., 252. 

eb uaa Magazine, quoted, 37, 


Hopkins, Senator, 320. 

Howe, E. D., quoted, 48, 65, 80- 
81, OI. 

Hyde, John, 94-95, 100, 296-297. 

Hyde, Orson, 214, 248. 


Ingersoll, Peter, quoted, 57-58. 

Institution, Zion Codperative 
Mercantile, 272-273, 280-281. 

Irvine, Mrs. Mary Winter, 
quoted, 86. 


Johnson, Bishop, 248. 

Johnston, General Albert Sidney, 
238, 242. 

Judd, rary John W., 307. 


Kane, Col. T. L., 240-241. 

Kearns, Senator Thomas, 331. 

Kelsey, Elder Eli B., 275. 

Kennedy, J. H., quoted, 40, 2 
42, 60, 64. 

Kimball, Heber, 282. 

Kimball, H.C, 383° 233 200m 

Kirtland, Ohio, Mormon settle- 
ment at, 143-157. 


Lake, Great Salt, 
Mormons, 202-203; 
221-223. 

Lake, Henry, quoted, 82-83. 


reached by 
described, 


Lamb, M. T., 107. 

Law, The Edmunds, 303-306, 
373: 

Lee, John D., 190; connection 
with the Mountain Meadows 
Masaene 252-257; executed, 
258. 


Legion, The Nauvoo, 171. 

Linn, W. A., quoted, 40, 60, 66, 
68, 92, 164, 190, 193, 211, 212, 
213, 217, 240, 248-249, 263- 
264, 297-298, 303-304, 305-306, 
317. 


INDEX 


Lincoln, President Abraham, 


265-266, 268, 301. 


Mack, Lucy, 35. 

Mack, Solomon, 36. 

McKean, Chief Justice James B., 
279-280, 287. 

i ee Mormon doctrine of, 130- 


Mec tiestn, The, 309-318. 

“Manuscript Found,” 
Spaulding’s, 81-93. 

Marsh, Thomas B., 
165. 

Massacre, The Mountain Mead- 
Ows, 250-261. 

Meyer, Edward, quoted, 79. 

Millennial Star, quoted, 43-44, 
192, 205, 214, ‘218- -219. 

Mills, Rev. Dr. Edward L., 
quoted, 349-352. 

Missions, Mormon, 209-220, 334- 
335, 338-340. 

“Modernism,” 
361. 

Morgan, William, 33. 

Mormon, Book of, who wrote? 
79-92; connection with Spauld- 
ing’s “Manuscript Found,” 81- 
93; contents of, 94-103; marks 
of invention in, 103-107; ori- 
gin of its ideas, 107-115. 

Mormon, meaning of name, 95- 


Solomon 


163; quoted, 


in Mormonism, 


Mormonism, a new religion, 25; 
roots of, 26-33; its Golden 
Bible, 50-93; contents of its 
Book, 94-115; founding and 
organization of its Church, 
116-124; doctrines of, 125-142; 
relation to civil government, 
138; polygamy, 139-142, 152, 
186-194, 205-318, 324, 327, 331, 


342-344, 356; settlement in 
Ohio, 143-157; removal to 
Missouri, 158-166; in Illinois, 


167-185; flight to the Rocky 
Mountains, 199-208; and mis- 
sions, 209-220; at Salt Lake 
City, 221 ff.; in Utah, 232 ff.; 
and blood atonement, 244-262; 


367 


and the Civil War, 262-268; 
the “New Movement,” 274-278; 
_its surrender of polygamy, 295- 
318; today, 332-363; statistics 
of, 333-334, 337-339; testimony 
to of resident Protestant min- 
isters, 344-355; concluding 
considerations, 355-363. 

Mormon War, The, 236-243. 

preg re “The New,” 274- 
278. 


Nauvoo, IIl., 168-185. 

News, The Deseret 246, 263, 314, 
337, 362. 

Nutting, Rev. Dr. John D., 127, 


354-355. 


Paden, Rev. Dr. W. M., 327- 


328; quoted, 352-354. 
Paine, Tom, his Age of Reason, 


political in Utah, 323, 


326. 

Parrish, William R., 248-249. 

Patterson, Robert, 80, 84. 

Pearl of Great Price, quoted, 5, 
51, 53-56, 77, 116-117. 

Penrose, Charles W., 311. 

Peters, John, quoted, 78. 

Peterson, Ziba, 144. 

Polygamy, Mormon doctrine and 
practice of, 139-142, 152, 186- 
194; Mormon surrender of, 
295-318; the Manifesto, 315- 
318; has it ceased? 342-344; 
its menace abated, 356. 

Powers, Judge O. W., 307. 

Pratt, Orson, 39, quoted, 79, 97, 
114, 163 171, 190; on polyg- 
amy, 192; quoted, 201, 210, 262, 


32. 
Parties, 


207. 
Pratt, Parley P., quoted, 87, 136, 
206, 297. 
Presbyterianism, 
1837, 33, 112. 
Presidency, First, explained, 120. 
Priesthoods, orders of, ex- 
plained, 122. 


its division in 


Quorums, explained, 120-121. 


368 


Rawlings, J. L., 323. 
Religion, its nature, 25; roots of, 
26-27. 

Reynolds, George, 301. 

Rice, Rev. Clayton S., quoted, 
346-349. 

Rice, L. D., 91. 

Rich, Leonard, 153. 

Richards, Elder F. D., 204, 206, 
208. 

Richards, William, 183. 

Rigdon, Sidney, connection with 
the “Manuscript Found,” 83- 
92, 108, 114, 146, 163, 168, 182; 
death of, 183, 195, 212. 

Riley, I. W., quoted, 37, 112-113, 
180-181. 

Roberts, Brigham H., 189-190, 
317-318, 327. 

Roosevelt, President Theodore, 


330. 
Rosa, Dr. S., quoted, 89. 


Sayce, A. H., quoted, 78. 

Schaeffer, Judge, 287. 

Scott, George M., 307-308. 

Shook, C. A., quoted, 48-49, 80, 
90-91, 92, 109-112. 

Sin, Mormon doctrine of, 131. 

Smalling, Cyrus, 153. 

Smith, the family, character of, 


46-49. 

Smith, Alexander H., son of the 
Prophet Joseph, 276-277. 

Smith, David Hyrum, son of the 
Prophet Joseph, 276-277. 

Smith, Mrs. Emma, wife of Jo- 
seph, 66-67, quoted, 102. 

Smith, Elder G. A., quoted, 264. 

Smith, Apostle Heman C., 108. 

Smith, Hyrum, brother of Jo- 
seph, 117; killed, 175-176, 188- 
212. 

Smith, Joseph, Junior, the Proph- 
et, birth and boyhood, 38- 
42; money-digger and peek- 
stone expert, 43-46; his “vi- 
sions” of the “plates,” 51-52; 
discovery and translation of 
the “plates,” 52-67; founding 


INDEX 


and organization of his church, 
116-124; his “Articles of 
Faith,” 126-127; his experi- 
ences at Kirtland, Ohio, 143- 
157; in Missouri, 158-166; in 
Illinois, 167-185; runs for the 
Presidency, 172-173; his death, 
174-177; character of, 177-182; 
his relations with polygamy, 
186-194. 

Smith, Joseph F., son of Hyrum 
and nephew of the Prophet, 
quoted, 171, 314-315; Presi- 
dent of the church, 316, 328. 

Smith, Joseph, Senior, 34,30 
peck- -stone expert, 42; his vi- 
sions, 38; “Patriarch” in the 
church, 121. 

Smith, Lucy, mother of Joseph, 
Junior, 36-37; quoted, 44, 154. 

Smith, Samuel, brother of Jo- 
seph, I17. 

Smoot, Apostle Reed, 317-318; 
Senator, 327-330. 

Snow, Lorenzo, quoted, 199, 310; 
President of the church, 329. 

Spalding, Rt. Rev. Franklin S., 
78-79, 345-346. 

Spaulding, John, quoted, 81-82. 

Spaulding, Solomon, his part in 
the origin of the Book of 
Mormon, 80-93. 

Spencer, Elder Daniel, 208. 

Spencer, Herbert, 25. 

Spirit, Holy, Mormon doctrine 
of, 130. 

Standards, of Mormonism, 


Howard, 


125, 


340. 

Stansbury, Captain 
quoted, 225-2206. 
Stenhouse, T. B., 95, 163, 190, 
200, 208, 210-211, 213, 216, 240, 
246-247, 249, 257, 268, 273, 

275, 277-278, 289, 202. 
Stenhouse, Mrs. T. B., her 
book, 280. 


Taft, President W. H., 331. 
Talmage, Apostle James E.,, 
quoted, 344. 


INDEX 


Apostle John, 


Taylor, 
President, 


quoted, 234; 


309. 

Thomas, Governor A. L., of 
Utah Territory, 307. 

Times and Seasons, quoted, 95- 
96, 99, 169, 172, 173. 

Tribune, Salt Lake, 230, 277, 331. 

Tucker, Pomeroy, quoted, 60, 89- 


90. 
Tullidge, E. W., 213, 223, 236, 
264, 272-273. 


1753 
290, 


Utah, steps to its statehood, 319- 
331. 


Van Vliet, Captain, 239. 


Waite, Judge C. B., 267. 

Waite, Mrs. C. B., her book 
quoted, 289. 

Weed, Thurlow, 67. 

Wells, D. H., General of Nauvoo 
Legion, 239. 

Wells, Heber M., first Governor 
of Utah, 324-325. 

Wentworth, Joseph, 125. 

Werner, M. R., quoted, 92. 

Whitmer, David, quoted, 69; one 
se the “witnesses,” 70-73, 153, 
162. 


369 


Whitmer, Peter, 118, 174. 

Winter, Dr. John, quoted, 86. 

Witnesses, to the “Golden 
Plates,” “The Three,” 70-76; 
“The Eight,” 74-76. 

Whitsin, Professor, quoted, 113- 


114. 
Woodruff, Wilford, quoted, 135, 

137, 223-224, 297; becomes 

President, 309; his Manifesto, 


309-318. 


Young, Brigham, quoted, 139; 
conversion to Mormonism, 155- 
156; becomes President of the 
church, 182-183; his only 
“revelation,” 200; reached 
Great Salt Lake, 202-203, 204; 
his disastrous “Hand-Cart Ex- 
pectation,’ 203-208; locates 
Salt Lake City, 224; Governor 
of Utah Territory, 233-234; 
in Mormon War, 236-243; on 
blood atonement, 245; connec- 
tion with the Mountain Mead- 
ows Massacre, 254-257; trea- 
sonable attitude in the Civil 
War, 264-268; at the height of 
his power, 269-294; his wives, 
282-289; his death and charac- 
ter, 290-294. 


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